


Apartment 34

by chelinda



Category: BLACKPINK (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:09:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 36,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28138218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chelinda/pseuds/chelinda
Summary: “May I ask what you’re doing in my kitchen?”orJennie accidentally breaks into Lisa's apartment.
Relationships: Jennie Kim/Lalisa Manoban | Lisa, Kim Jisoo/Park Chaeyoung | Rosé
Comments: 139
Kudos: 523





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “May I ask what you’re doing in my kitchen?”
> 
> or
> 
> Jennie's not even on the right floor.

#### Apartment 34

Jennie pushes open the door to her building’s lobby and is greeted with the “elevator out of order” sign. She huffs and glares at it angrily, as if that would change anything.  
She slowly turns towards the staircase and begins dragging herself up to her floor. 

To say that she was exhausted would be a pretty blatant understatement. She even fell asleep on the subway ride and God knows Jennie never lets her overly cautious ass sleep anywhere else but in her own home.  
But after moving here from Korea, starting her new job and working 10 hours overtime all within the span of the last 3 days – Jennie just couldn’t help herself but take a little nap with her face pressed against the subway-window.  
Her head is still throbbing a bit from all the little hits it got due to the bumpy ride and it sure as hell doesn’t help her growing headache. She really needs a good night’s rest. 

The big yawn escaping her mouth as she opens the door to her floor is proof enough of that.  
She can barely keep her eyes open and she can feel all the muscles in her body screaming at her to please lie the fuck down. She is sore all over – having to carry all her stuff up to the fourth floor by herself the other day making itself noticeable. Stupid broken elevator. 

She’s not even surprised when she finds the door to her appartement unlocked. She’d had to get up in such a rush this morning that she probably just forgot – and usually Jennie would freak out knowing that her home had been unguarded all day long, but right now she didn’t even have enough strength for that. 

She lets her bag slide to the floor by the door and shuffles into the kitchen-living room-area where she finds the tap almost blindly and splashes some water to her tired face. 

“Um… hello?”

Jennie shrieks and out of instinct takes a step back – where her back collides with the metal handlebar from the fridge. She screams again – out of pain or fear, she’s not too sure, but now she’s wide awake.  
Her head spins and she feels dizzy and then there’s a flash of white blinding her – but when her eyes adapt she realizes that someone had turned on the light.  
That someone was standing a few feet away from her – looking at her puzzled but still somewhat friendly. 

Jennie has never seen the girl before and she’s got some serious questions for the intruder, which she would’ve voiced out if it wasn’t for her heart racing like a maniac, making it impossible to speak. 

The other girl looks her up and down and tilts her head in a confused manner. 

“May I ask what you’re doing in my kitchen?”, she asks with a slight hint of amusement in her voice, which takes Jennie aback even more than the question itself. 

“In your… it’s MY kitchen!”, she retorts bluntly, only to see the other girl furrow her brows while laughing. Big light-brown orbs wander towards a picture that hangs on the wall beside her and Jennie follows her line of sight and then her eyes go wide in realization. She’s never seen that photography before and when she finally takes in her surroundings for the first time, she has to admit that none of it looks familiar. 

“It’s.. This isn’t… I’m…”, she stammers – feeling her heart sink into the pit of her stomach and the heat rising to her cheeks. What the actual hell? 

“It’s not my kitchen. This isn’t even my appartement. I’m sorry?”  
Her vis a vis finishes her sentences and sends her a face-eating grin that shows off a perfect set of white teeth. 

Jennie can only nod slightly whilst she tries to slow down her racing heart. It’s only working moderately.  
Her hands are still shaking a bit when she lifts them up, as if to show the owner of the home she apparently broken into that she’s not armed or anything. 

“I think I... I must’ve mixed up the doors or something…”, she gets out slowly. She’s pretty sure her face is as red as a tomato by now. 

“Yeah, I would think so too.” 

“I’m so sorry…”, Jennie breathes, and she means it. She’s never been so embarrassed in her life.  
But the person standing in front of her doesn’t seem to care that much – she looks very relaxed as she leans forward against the kitchen island and bites her lower lip. 

“Don’t sweat it. The doors look all the same, so…” 

Jennie thinks it’s strange how calm she is, given that some stranger just casually walked into her flat. For all she knows, she could be a serial killer. 

“I sure hope you’re not some crazy killer or something…”, the other girl says then – as if reading Jennie’s thoughts.  
“I’m gonna warn you – I have pepper spray. Around here. Somewhere. I don’t know exactly where I put it, but… you get the idea.” 

Jennie doesn’t laugh, even though she wants to – but the situation is just too weird and it doesn’t feel like it’s her place to laugh at the person she just bothered beyond explanation. 

“Not much of a talker, are we?”

“I’m sorry… I… I should just really get to bed.”

There’s a rise of eyebrows and a kinky smile and then: “Oh wow, you sure get to the point right away – but sure. Bedroom is the second door to the left.” 

It takes Jennie a second to comprehend what the other girl suggested but before she can say anything in return her counterpart bursts into a big fit of giggles – her perfect teeth on display once again. 

“Sorry. Sometimes I only speak to avoid silence I guess. Here..”, she walks around Jennie and grabs the latter’s bag on the corridor’s floor. She hands it to her and opens the entry-door. 

“Do you need help finding the right appartement?” 

Jennie shakes her head. The only thing she needs is her pillow so she can scream into it for approximately three hours. 

“Cool. Cool cool cool.”, the other girl mumbles as she leans against the door frame. “You know where to find me, if you do.” 

“Yeah I… I’m very sorry for.. you know..”

“Breaking into my home?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s fine. Really. Don’t worry about it and just go to sleep. It was nice meeting you, um….?”

She looks at her expectantly and Jennie realizes that she hadn’t even introduced herself. 

“Jennie.”, she states as a matter of fact and holds out her hand - it’s simple manners. 

The other girl reaches out immediately, grabbing her hand and giving it a little squeeze. 

“Jennie...”, she lets the name roll off her tongue slowly, as if to smoothen any edges around it. “I’m Lisa.”

Jennie nods because she doesn’t know what else to do and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. Lisa still looks at her somewhat intensely and it’s making her giddy. 

“Well Jennie…”, Lisa then speaks and there it is again, that damn huge smile of hers that makes her whole face light up. “Come visit me anytime. Next time maybe knock though.” 

She winks and before she knows what happened – the door closes behind her and Jennie’s alone in the hallway again.  
Her eyes are fixed on Lisa’s door for another good minute – the golden numbers on it mocking her. 

_34_

She’s not even on the right floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ugh, please someone kick my ass and stop me from writing jenlisa fics  
> I need to study haha
> 
> I dreamed of a story like this recently, so here I am, sharing my dreams with you lol
> 
> stay safe everyone!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “What is it with you and not locking your door anyway?”, Jennie asks out of honest curiosity. She always thought of people who leave their home unprotected during night as maniacs. Because look what could happen.

#### Chapter 2

She stumbles out of the cab and almost trips – the hand reaching for her jacket providing her from falling onto the pavement face first. 

“Wow, careful there, young lady.”, she hears her co-worker Kai slur behind her. He loosens his grip when Jennie looks over her shoulder and sends him a wink. 

“Are you sure you don’t need accompaniment?”  
His eyes are glowing with something that makes Jennie’s stomach twist, but she’s not sure it’s in a good way. She shakes her head as she steadies herself by holding onto the car. 

“I’m fine… thanks for... tonight.”  
She’s stuttering – she hates when she does this. She always found that it makes her look insecure when really, she was anything but that. 

“You’re welcome beautiful.” He flashes her a cheeky smile to which Jennie only nods. 

“Night, Kai.”

“Goodnight, Miss Kim.”

She lets go of the vehicle and shuts the door a little too forcefully – the loud thud startling her.  
She remains standing there on the sidewalk looking after the car until she can’t make out the rear lights anymore. Her mind travels elsewhere – fuzzy flashbacks of several rounds of shots, loud music and her co-workers shouting “welcome to the team, Kim” into her ear.  
It had been a blast – obviously – her new colleagues taking her out to drink after an exhausting first week of work, but Jennie was a lightweight that gets too clingy when intoxicated and it took all the strength within her to not give in to Kai who had been goggling at her all evening.  
Unsurprisingly, they had hit if off quite well – with them both being Korean and all, but still, something just didn’t feel right. Of course, Jennie would never ever do anything physical without really knowing him anyway, so that was that. 

She starts for her buildings entrance – realizing that she’s swaying a little.  
She can almost hear her mother scolding her and calling her an irresponsible drinker and she lets out a sharp laugh at that. How fucking relieved she was to not be at home in Korea right now. 

Jennie reaches the elevator eventually and she’s never been so happy about the fact that it’s been fixed the day before.  
She stumbles inside once the doors open and falls against the huge ass mirror – her reaction being too slow due to the influence of alcohol in her body and she hits her head.  
When she doesn’t feel any pain, she starts giggling – maybe she has become invulnerable. 

She presses the button to her floor and lets her body slide down the wall – crouching and holding onto her knees in order to regain some sort of stability.  
She then closes her eyes for a short moment, which messes badly with her balance and she tips over – falling on her ass. 

“Wow.”, Jennie breathes and shakes her head. What even was she doing? She never drinks that much. 

The Bing of the elevator shakes her out of her thoughts and she more or less crawls out of it - pretty aware of how stupid she must look right now, but it’s in the middle of the night and thankfully there’s no one else in the corridor.  
With a lot of effort and even more luck she’s able to stand up without falling right back down and if she could, she would high-five herself for that – but she would definitely miss her own hands, so she lets it be. 

It’s warm inside her apartment and Jennie’s glad because October in New York is quite cold, and she can’t really feel her feet anymore. Her high heels are not really suitable for this kind of temperature.  
She slips them off, along with her coat and then busies herself with her dress – which she now realizes had not been the best idea. It has a zipper at the back and there was no way she would be able to unzip it without hurting herself in the current state she was in. 

She tries though – as she pushes open the door to her bedroom – head craned so she could somewhat look at her back, hands busy with trying to reach the zipper. Why the hell would someone design a dress like this? It’s not very user friendly. 

“Need any help with that?”

She’s pretty sure that her scream could be heard all the way back to Korea.  
Her head spins around and one hand falls over her mouth instinctively – eyes widening in the process as well. The pain in her head increases due to her sudden movement and she has to squeeze her eyes shut for a moment – her other hand reaching for something to hold onto in order to not fall again. 

When she opens her eyes, she finds Lisa standing in front of her – supporting her by holding her hand.  
She’s smiling at her – like the last time they met and Jennie almost wants to compliment her on her fucking perfect teeth, but then she remembers where she is right now and swallows her words. 

“Seems like someone had a fun night out.”, Lisa grins and her other hand moves to Jennie’s shoulder in order to support her upright position. 

“You okay?”, she asks when Jennie doesn’t react and only looks at her with big eyes. 

“I…. I’m… Again?”

“Mhm, seems like it.”, Lisa shrugs and Jennie’s eyes wander around the room for a second. Yep – most definitely not hers. She can’t recall buying some silly rabbit bed linen and she makes a promise to herself to never do so in the future as well – but then again, it somehow fits the room and the girl in front of her, who was wearing almost the same pattern on her pajamas. What a child. 

Jennie is being reminded of the current situation when she feels Lisa’s thump softly stroking her hand and it shoots such a strong sensation through her whole body that she has to withdraw immediately. 

Lisa also takes a step back in response and meets Jennie’s eyes. 

“Sorry.”, she says quickly and Jennie feels like a jerk right away. Why the hell did she do that? 

“It’s fine.. I’m.. I should be sorry. I’m… in your home. Again.”

She realizes how her words come out of her mouth in a drunken babble and she lets her sight drop to the ground embarrassed. 

“You sure are.”, Lisa retorts, but still – she doesn’t seem angry or anything and Jennie can’t help but think that something has to be wrong with her. What kind of person doesn’t mind someone else barging into their bedroom drunk at 3 o’clock at night? 

“Do you want some water or something?”

Jennie hears her and for some strange reason her mind focuses on the words ‘or something’, as her eyes fall onto Lisa’s lips for a split second. 

She really shouldn’t drink that much ever again. It does terrible things to her brain. 

The other girl seems to realize that Jennie’s drifted away to God knows where, because she takes a step forward and points towards her bedroom door. 

“Come on, we’re gonna grab you a Gatorade. I maybe even have a pill for that headache of yours.”

Jennie furrows her forehead as she slowly turns towards the corridor as well. 

“I don’t have a headache.”, she murmurs and holds onto the doorframe – feeling slightly unstable again. 

Lisa grins and holds out her arm for Jennie to take as support once again and because she doesn’t know what else to do, Jennie grabs it with both hands, as she hears Lisa say: “Not yet.” 

Jennie remains silent because yeah, she’s probably right. And it’s humbug anyway – she can feel her head throbbing like crazy but she can also feel her skin burn on her hands where she’s touching Lisa. She’s not entirely sure which is more uncomfortable. 

“I’m fine.”, she says – more to herself than the other girl, but Lisa still nods along to her words. 

“Mhhhm... sure you are.”

“You don’t believe me.”, Jennie states and somehow, she finds herself sounding sad. 

“I probably would if you were able to stand by yourself, Jennie.”, Lisa smirks and then sends her a smile and fuck, it’s just something else. Jennie has honest to God never seen a more stunning smile before and she works with models almost on a daily basis. 

“What’s with the face?”

Jennie jerks her eyes away from Lisa’s mouth and looks up at her – she’s been caught. 

“What face?”, she asks innocently as she sits down ungracefully on the stool at Lisa’s kitchen island. 

“That face you were just making.”, Lisa answers as a matter of fact – grabbing a drink from her fridge and opening the lid before placing it in front of Jennie. 

“I… I don’t know what you mean.”

Lisa laughs and shakes her head – gesturing at the Gatorade. 

“You should really drink that.” 

Jennie hesitates. “I’m not thirsty.” 

Lisa stands back against the kitchen counter and tilts her head. “Yeah, clearly you’ve had enough to drink tonight.”

“It wasn’t that much…”

“You almost stripped in front of me.” 

Jennie’s face heats up and she reaches for the drink quickly – almost downing it all so she wouldn’t have to speak. She really couldn’t trust herself right now and Lisa’s teasing wasn’t any help in that department.  
Even though it was probably meant as a harmless banter, Jennie felt the sudden urge to leave this place as fast as possible. 

When she gets up in one quick move, Lisa’s by her side in a heartbeat – steadying her with one hand on the small of her back. 

“Woah, easy there.”, she merely whispers against her ear and Jennie’s insides squirm at that. She’s never drinking alcohol ever again. It does terrible things to her. 

“I.. need to.. I need to go.”, she stammers. 

“You can crash here if you want to.”, Lisa offers bluntly, but there’s nothing else to read in her words or her eyes – nothing like Kai before and Jennie’s not sure if she’s happy about it or not. 

“No it’s.. No thank you. I’ve already put too much on you as it is.”, she answers and is quite surprised when her speaking is quite normal. 

Lisa laughs again and scratches her forehead as if she was carefully thinking about her next words. 

“You’re not as bad as you think, Jennie.”

“I broke into your flat. Twice.”

“I’m not sure you can count that as breaking in though...”, Lisa questions and watches along as Jennie – in very small and careful steps – walks in the direction of the main door.  
She wants to lean forward in order to pick up her belongings – not even bothering putting on her heels again – but Lisa beats her to it. 

“Yeah, what is it with you and not locking your door anyway?”, Jennie asks out of honest curiosity. She always thought of people who leave their home unprotected during night as maniacs. Because look what could happen.

Lisa smiles – but this time her teeth remain behind her lips and still Jennie’s quite mesmerized. 

“How else would beautiful strangers be able to get in?”

Jennie’s surprised at the lack of insinuation in Lisa’s voice – she’s being totally honest and Jennie thinks it’s endearing. 

“Need any help getting home safely?”

She shakes her head and is suddenly hit with that Deja-vu of Kai asking her a similar question only half an hour ago. This refusal somehow takes a lot more willpower and Jennie really doesn’t want to think about the reasons. She’s too tired and too tipsy for these kinds of deep thoughts still.  
“I’m sorry for tonight.”, she apologizes and turns to leave, when she hears Lisa’s “hold on” and footsteps on the hallways wooden floor. 

She holds her breath as she feels Lisa busying herself with the back of her dress and then the zipper is a little further down – exactly where it needs to be in order for Jennie to reach it herself and without exposing her. 

“There you go. Get home safely, Jennie.”

She’s only able to move again when the door to apartment 34 is long shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for the love -  
> and whilst no, i don't have a winter break this year; writing these kinda feels a bite like a holiday :'D 
> 
> tell me what you think of the new chapter *.*
> 
> love you's


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Young lady. Don’t you wanna get out?”
> 
> Her head jerks up and she looks at him - how he holds one arm through the exit to prevent the doors from closing again before Jennie could hop out. 
> 
> “3rd floor.”, he adds, and Jennie starts sweating. Why did he have to emphasize? For the first time she’s painfully aware where she is.

#### Chapter 3

Jennie’s really not the overthinking type. She never has been because she refused to get herself too hung up on things. 

But somehow this whole moving and starting a new life procedure has taken its toll on her – the two weeks at the new company being fucking tiring and even though her new work mates being lovely, she still missed Jisoo and all her other friends back home. 

She hadn’t had a serious talk with someone in such a long time – apart from her occasional facetime sessions with her best friend – and she longed for someone to just hold her and tell her that she was doing okay. 

And that’s when it started. At first it was just sporadic – a bright, teethy smile crossing her mind now and then – for example when Kai laughed at his own joke and she was reminded that his laugh could never match hers.  
Or when she got herself a Gatorade from the vending machine only because the tase made her daydream of that night a week ago. 

And now she didn’t even need any reminder to think about her and it freaked Jennie out beyond imagination.  
She knew about the concept of crushes – sure – but Jennie Ruby Jane Kim did not get crushes. She simply refused to get them. Attractions? Sure. Crushes? Never.  
At least not at times when she really didn’t want them. And still – here she was.

“Which floor?”

Jennie refocuses and furrows her brow. 

“I’m sorry?”, she asks – her mind elsewhere. Again. 

“Which floor do you need to get off.”, the old man asks again – his shaky hand hovering over the buttons, ready to press whatever number she tells him. 

“3.”, she hears herself say instinctively, but then she corrects her error, before he’s even able to reach forward.  
“No, 4.”, she stresses and somehow, that number just sounds so wrong in her mouth. 

The man glances at her sideways while he moves his hand closer to the elevators-buttons. 

“Are you sure?”, he then asks and Jennie’s really taken aback by that – even though it was just a normal question. He stares at her so intensely that she gets a strange, celestial vibe off of him and she swallows at his gaze. 

“3.”, she repeats. “Floor number 3, thank you.”

His wrinkly hand moves up and soon enough, the button with the number 3 shines in a bright light on the indicator board. 

Jennie sends him a tight-lipped smile and starts fidgeting with the hem of her coat – suddenly very aware of what she’s planning to do and she almost wants to hit that red emergency button to stop the elevator. Stop everything. Oh, how she would love that button for her thoughts right now. 

It’s the voice of the old man that shakes her out of her trance once again and this time, he sounds pissed: “Young lady. Don’t you wanna get out?”

Her head jerks up and she looks at him - how he holds one arm through the exit to prevent the doors from closing again before Jennie could hop out. 

“3rd floor.”, he adds, and Jennie starts sweating. Why did he have to emphasize? For the first time she’s painfully aware where she is. 

“Thank you.”, she mumbles as she moves past him even though she’s not really thankful at all that he didn’t leave her any other chance but to do this. Any maybe it’s a little exaggeration but she needs to put the blame on someone else right now in order to keep halfway sane.  
She became junior assistant in one of Koreas biggest modeling agencies by the age of 20 and landed pitches with Mac and Maybelline, and yet she’s never felt so nervous before. 

Her steps are correspondingly slow and her thoughts are running wild with all the excuses she can come up with as to why she’s here. Not one of them sounding even somehow believable.

When she finally walks up in front of apartment 34 her hands are shaking so bad, she wouldn’t be able to hold a pen if her life depended on it.  
She’s even lucky if she can knock. 

She raises her right hand as well as her direction of view and spots something wedged between door and frame exactly at her eye level.  
It’s a piece of folded up paper and it has her name on it. 

_Jennie (:_

She frowns and looks over her shoulder because it feels like she’s getting pranked. Wouldn’t be the first time Jisoo pulls something from overseas. Or maybe she randomly confused the door again? She sure as hell wasn’t the only Jennie on earth. 

Still her curiosity gets the best of her and she pulls out the note - carefully unfolding it and reading it even more careful. 

_Jennie,_

_if somehow you find yourself in front of this apartment again, then I’m sorry but you mixed up the floors again.  
If you deliberately came to see me though, then I have to tell you that I’m visiting my family and I actually locked my door for once. (So, you’d have to break in for real, I guess.) _

_I’m back next Friday (:_

_xoxo, Lisa_

_PS: if you’re not Jennie and you’re still reading, you’re a creep and should really rethink your behavior!_

Jennie only realizes the huge ass grin on her face, when her cheeks start hurting. This girl really was something else. Like, how could she have known? Intuition? Clairvoyance? Witchcraft? Stalking?  
Somehow everything made more sense to her than the last thing and usually, that would’ve been Jennie’s first guess. But not with Lisa. Someone with that kind of superhuman-smile could never… 

Jennie puts the note into her jean-pocket and bites her lower lip. She’s suddenly very tempted to check if Lisa was honest about the whole locking-the-door-thing – but she comes to her senses again when she hears a door opening behind her. 

She hurriedly turns on the spot and marches straight towards the stairwell. A familiar feeling of shame creeping up her back that she can’t quite classify.  
Was it because Lisa’s letter made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Or was it because her whole body tingled at the prospect of maybe seeing her again soon?  
After all, she had especially mentioned that she would get back on Friday. And she had done so on purpose, right? Or had Jennie just gone freaking crazy and none of this really meant anything at all?

She groans and pulls out the note again – re-reading it approximately 10 times; even Lisa’s clear handwriting somewhat affecting her. 

She’s fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, thanks for the love guys. 
> 
> do you guys enjoy reading this as much as I enjoy writing it? ;D
> 
> tell me what you think of it, i really love hearing your thoughts. 
> 
> xxx  
> stay safe!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s open, you can go in.” 
> 
> Lisa’s voice startles her – like always, and Jennie’s quick to turn around.  
> She’s standing there in sweats and a way too large shirt – holding a laundry basket and looking absolutely fly.  
> There’s a smile on her face – that smile – and Jennie almost faints. It’s so much better in person that in her head.

#### Chapter 4

Within all of Jennie’s childhood there was nothing that’s ever gotten her more excited than Christmas. Her mom had to calm her down several times a day in order for her kid to not have a heart-attack at a very young age. Jennie even had pictures of Santa plastered all over her bedroom wall – she was such a fan. 

But the days right before Christmas were the really bad ones. Jennie remembers sleepless nights, racing heart and shaking hands. Not even her mom’s famous hot choco could help.  
Someday she grew out of it, of course, when she got older and learned how to deal with nervousness and excitement – but today Jennie feels like she’s six again. 

Her fingers are drumming rapidly against her jumpy leg and she probably looks like a junkie on rehab. The woman standing a few feet away from her in the subway already sending her a questioning look – but Jennie couldn’t care less.  
It was Friday and it felt like Christmas all over again. 

Jennie knew that she was probably overreacting – no scratch that, she knew that she was most definitely overreacting, but she just couldn’t help it.  
All week she had been trying to calm down, to distract herself – busying her ass with work and even having lunch with Kai but it was a lost cause and Jennie knew that by now.  
Lisa had put a spell on her to which she hadn’t found an antidote yet. And she wasn’t sure she wanted one anyway. 

She’s almost running on her way home and only slows down her steps when she reaches the 3rd floor – her breathing somewhat quick and it just hits her that Lisa’s probably not as overwhelmingly thrilled or even expectant of her visit when she’s already standing in front of apartment number 34.  
That possibility never occurred to her in all her daydreams and it unsettles her enormously. Maybe she should just back off and let it be in spite of everything? Just go home, have a smoke and forget that she ever entered the door in front of her.  
She almost wants to do so, but she doesn’t even get around doing that.

“It’s open, you can go in.” 

Lisa’s voice startles her – like always, and Jennie’s quick to turn around.  
She’s standing there in sweats and a way too large shirt – holding a laundry basket and looking absolutely fly.  
There’s a smile on her face – that smile – and Jennie almost faints. It’s so much better in person that in her head. 

Lisa shuffles closer and Jennie’s aware that she’s standing there pretty much motionless. When she reaches her, Jennie takes a step back because being too close to Lisa isn’t something she can cope with right now. She feels stupid again because every time they’ve met now she’s been more or less tongue-tied and Lisa probably thinks she’s a weirdo. 

“Can you maybe…”, Lisa starts and gestures to her occupied hands and the door of her flat and at least Jennie’s senses still work and she opens the door. Lisa walks in – but not without sending her a wink as she moves past her. Jennie remains in her spot until Lisa appears in the doorframe again after putting down the basket. 

“You coming?”, she asks, but it’s not really a question. She slouches into her bedroom and it gives Jennie a second to breathe. Oh how she missed oxygen. 

“I assume you got my note then?”, Lisa calls as soon as Jennie closed the door behind her – now awkwardly standing in the entrance area, not really knowing what to do with herself. She feels a little bit sick to her stomach and she realizes that she hasn’t eaten today yet. 

Lisa’s head pops up from inside her bedroom and she sends Jennie a questioning look.  
“Are you just gonna stand there? Come on, you can help me with something.” 

Jennie’s not sure how, but her legs start working on their own and she finds herself inside Lisa’s bedroom an instant later. It still looks the same as it did a week ago but this time it’s not in the middle of the night and Jennie can actually see something.  
There are a ton of pictures on the wall behind the bedrest and when she moves a little to have a closer look, Lisa appears on her side with a proud expression on her face. 

“My life in a nutshell.”, she grins and watches as Jennie’s sight wanders over a few pictures of her with some friends and family – at least Jennie assumes so and then her eyes land on Lisa squeezed between a group of kids, all of them wearing sweatpants and a crop top and they’re all doing the peace-sign. 

“My crew.”, Lisa explains proudly, and her eyes light up like Jennie’s never seen before. 

“Crew?”, she repeats and Lisa nods. 

“My kiddies. I teach dance at the Uptown Dance Academy.” 

“You…? You do?” Jennie’s not really as surprised as she sounds because honestly, it fits her very well with her fit body and all, but she never knew one could really live off of that kind of job. 

“Mhm…”, Lisa makes and the shuffles back towards her laundry basket on the floor. “Not the ultimate pay but hey… at least it’s fun. Plus, I get to do what I love all day, so... I’m good.”

They share a glance and Jennie’s all kinds of impressed. A dance teacher. Wow, her body must be…

“But enough about me. What do you do?”

Jennie shrugs. Compared to Lisa, her job was so boring that she really doesn’t want to talk about it. 

“Here help me with this, please.”, the other girl requests and tosses some of her clean clothes at Jennie, who catches it awkwardly. Did she actually just ask her to fold laundry with her?  
A little laugh escapes her and she doesn’t miss how Lisa’s head jerks up at the sound. She matches her smile instantly and blinks. 

“I knew it.”, she celebrates – pointing at Jennie delighted. “I knew you could smile.” 

Jennie shakes her head and busies herself with one of Lisa’s T-shirts. It has cats with hats on it. 

“Of course I can.”, she mumbles – not really meeting Lisa’s eyes. Somehow that remark makes her flustered. Did she genuinely give off such a stern vibe? 

“You should do it more often then. Your smile is amazing.”

Jennie almost returns the compliment – maybe adding that Lisa’s smile was out of this world and that she hasn’t been thinking about anything else ever since they met – but she’s pretty sure she died a little there because of Lisa’s words and she suddenly doesn’t remember how to speak, so she just takes a matching pair of socks – looking at the pattern as if it’s the most interesting thing on earth.  
It has cat-faces on them. 

“You…”, she more or less stammers. “You really like cats, huh?”

Lisa only looks at her with a funny expression on her face that Jennie can’t really place – and then she hums in agreement. 

“You could say so, yes. I wanna have at least 4 of them by the time I’m 30.”

“That’s very specific.”, Jennie observes and even though she finds it cute, she can’t really say that she’s on the same page as Lisa. She’s never been a pets-kind-of-person. 

“What about you?”, Lisa asks - honest interest in her voice. 

“I’m allergic to cats, so…”

“Oh.”, Lisa’s face falls a tiny bit and Jennie’s actually somewhat surprised about that reaction. Was she missing something here? 

“Well…”, Lisa then adds – looking rather satisfied with herself. “There’s that breed with the special fur that doesn’t affect the allergic. I’ll just have to get that kind then.”

Jennie furrows her forehead because really, she had no idea what Lisa meant by that and she sure as hell didn’t want to read anything into it. That would mess badly with her self-control.  
Still, she wanted to know what Lisa meant by that – the “why” voiced out a little too fast to Jennie’s own liking. She really needed to find her chill. 

This time it was Lisa who didn’t exactly meet her eyes – suddenly very into the task at hands, putting away her clothes into her drawer. 

“Oh you know... just… hey you never told me what you do for a living.”

The subject change wasn’t discrete at all, but Jennie let it be, because she knows from experience that pushing for answers never worked out well. Still, she couldn’t deny the little flame of hope arising inside her chest. 

“I’m a junior fashion manager at Calvin Klein. It’s... not that interesting to be honest, but I like it.”

Lisa seems impressed nonetheless – her mouth slightly agape and her eyes sparkling. 

“Wowwwww…”, she drags out and raises an eyebrow. “That sounds… demanding.” 

“It’s alright. Even though I do work a lot right now, but that’s probably just because I’m new at the company and stuff.” 

“Oh, when did you start working there?” Lisa puts away the last clothing items and flops down on her bed, gesturing for Jennie to do the same, to which she obeys.  
She’s fully aware of how close they are and tries not to shudder too much at the proximity. She really likes this whole getting to know one another, because everything she learns about Lisa only adds to her charm. 

“I moved here from Korea about two weeks ago.”, Jennie explains, and the other girl almost jumps up.

“I was just there last year. My friend and I went to see the Yeon Deung Hoe in Seoul and it was magnificent. Did you ever go?” 

Her eyes sparkle with so much anticipation that Jennie almost forgets that there was something entirely more flabbergasting. 

“I’m… I go there every year, I’m... actually from Seoul.” 

“No way.”, Lisa laughs and her shoulders brush Jennie’s in the process. It reminds her of how close they’re sitting beside each other, and Jennie almost passes out again, but then Lisa speaks and her voice is filled with so much happiness that it revives her immediately. 

“Did you see when that huge ass dragon-.”  
“Caught fire and launched itself into the night sky after some heroic dumbass managed to cut its straps?”, Jennie ends her sentence and nods. She remembers this day as if it were yesterday.  
“I was actually standing pretty close to it when it happened. What about you?” 

Lisa clears her throat and side-eyes Jennie with slightly reddened cheeks. 

“I… uhm… I was the heroic dumbass.” 

There’s a moment of complete silence and then Jennie bursts into a fit of laughter – shoving Lisa’s shoulder. 

“No, you weren’t. You don’t fool me.”, she giggles and watches Lisa smile uneasy at first and then rolling up the short sleeve of her shirt to reveal a huge ass burn scar. Jennie’s laugh dies in her throat in a heartbeat and without thinking she reaches out and tenderly touches the skin near the scar. 

Her eyes wander up to meet Lisa’s who’s already looking at her with big brown eyes. 

“You could’ve died.”, Jennie hears herself whisper and somehow her memories of that night become crystal clear that instant. How nobody really realized that the accident wasn’t part of the show and how they all just partied away after the savior of the hour – Lisa – had been taken away in an ambulance. 

She feels her stomach twist and turn, and she is pretty sure her face is white from shock. 

“It wasn’t that bad, Jennie. I'm fine.”, Lisa tries to reassure her, but it’s only working a little. 

Jennie’s eyes fall onto Lisa’s arm, where her fingers are still touching her and she realizes that there are goosebumps on Lisa’s arm. 

“I can’t believe you were actually there.”, Lisa murmurs and Jennie can feel something shift between them. Whether it was Lisa’s reaction to her touch or the fact that she was a firm believer in destiny – she suddenly feels bold enough to lean forward and place a soft kiss on the scar. 

“You know, when I got back home that night, I wrote in my journal that someday, I’m going to marry someone as brave as that hero at the parade.” 

Lisa doesn’t say anything – instead she just looks at Jennie, sends her a beaming smile and then leans in to capture her lips in a kiss that blows Jennie’s mind. Leaving her head completely empty apart from one thing.

_Lisa is definitely better than Christmas._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> .
> 
> i'm not too sure this chapter is any good.  
> let me know what you think. 
> 
> PS: english isn't my mother tongue, so please excuse any errors or re-usage of certain words haha
> 
> stay safe! 
> 
> xoxo


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Are these your parents?” 
> 
> Jennie lifts up the picture frame for Lisa to see, as she’s currently busy whipping up some late dinner for them. 
> 
> “Yep, that’s them. Moma and Daddy.”

#### Chapter 5:

“What’s with the smile, Kim?” 

Kai leans his body against her desk and grins down at her and Jennie can’t help but think that his butt absolutely doesn’t belong on there. 

“What do you mean?”, she returns innocently – but of course she knows why he’s asking. Normally, she’s all cool and collected at work, but not today. Not after the night she had. 

“You seem unusually blissful today.”, he detects and he’s right but Jennie doesn’t want to talk to him about that one little bit. 

“Umm, yeah, no, I don’t know.”, she retorts and shrugs – awkwardly moving deeper into her office chair when he leans in a little closer. 

“Something, or someone, I should know about?”

His face is still friendly, but there’s a tightness in his voice that makes Jennie realize how badly he wanted her to refute his assumption. And even though she didn’t want to, Jennie hears herself say no nonetheless. 

“Not that it’s any of your business.”, she adds with a little rise of her eyebrows and Kai laughs. 

“Good.”, he says and sends her a wink that makes her loose a little bit of that smile that was plastered on her face the whole day up until now. “Because I intent to make you mine.”

He bites his bottom lip and before she can react to his last words, he moves out of her space – leaving behind a taste of something Jennie absolutely loathes. What the fuck was that? 

She replays his words in her head – _to make you mine_ – and she wonders if he really thinks that people could belong to anyone other than themselves.  
To be honest, that thought had always scared her – that someday she might be trapped in a relationship or even a marriage that felt more like prison than anything else. Like her mother was.  
Jennie had sworn to herself that she’d never let that happen to herself – and she knows someone else who feels that way.... 

\------

_  
“Are these your parents?”_

_Jennie lifts up the picture frame for Lisa to see, as she’s currently busy whipping up some late dinner for them._

_“Yep, that’s them. Moma and Daddy.”_

_Jennie grins as she puts the picture back in its place and takes a sip from the wineglass in her other hand. She’s aware that she had only sworn to never drink again about two weeks ago but who could deny Lisa anything when her question is squeezed between little kisses? Not Jennie, that’s for sure._

_She notices that Lisa looks nothing like her father, but she decides that that’s a topic for some other time._

_She walks up to the kitchen island and leans against it – cautiously swirling the glass and watching Lisa’s back, okay maybe her butt, while said girl is still busy stirring whatever it is in her pan._

_“They look very happy.”, Jennie then notes, and Lisa sends her a smile over her shoulder._

_“They are.”_

_She sounds so sure about it and Jennie almost feels a little jealous. She wished she could say the same._

_“What about your parents?”, she hears Lisa ask. Before she answers she takes another, big sip of the alcoholic beverage, because wow – she’s not really sure she’s ready to talk about that – but then again, she brought up the topic and Lisa seems like the kind of person who would understand._

_“It’s um... it’s a little complicated I guess.”_

_She hears the way her voice changes into something more serious and she’s not surprised when she finds Lisa turning around to face her – concern written all over her features._

_“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to…”_

_“It’s fine.”, Jennie interrupts – not wanting Lisa to feel even the slightest bit of guilt._

_Lisa reaches out and rubs Jennie’s arm softly. It’s calming beyond believe and Jennie catches herself wondering if she’ll ever feel anxiety again while being next to Lisa. Probably not._

_“Do you wanna talk about it? Some people say I’m a pretty good listener.”_

_Lisa’s eyes are full of tenderness when they look at each other and Jennie would actually tell her everything and more if she kept looking at her with those big puppy eyes._

_“I… I don’t… really know how to explain.”, she begins slowly. Lisa is just standing there, waiting for her to speak further – giving her the time she needs to collect herself._

_“I guess overall you could say that my mother was more or less forced into marrying my dad for reasons of reputation and… now she belongs to him. I don’t think they ever loved one another.”_

_She ends with swallowing empty and when she lifts her eyes from where they were looking at the ground – Lisa seems far away, lost in thoughts._

_When she recovers, she grabs the bottle of wine and fills up Jennie’s glass._

_“I’m sorry Jennie. That’s really fucked up.”_

_She’s taken aback, because in all honesty, no one had ever been that real with her before. Not even Jisoo dared to speak her mind like that when she told her a few years ago and usually Jisoo wasn’t one to hold back._

_Lisa frowns again and Jennie already misses her smile. She’s not very happy about the fact that she put that serious expression on her face._

_“I’m not really familiar with Korean traditions and all, but in my opinion, people should never belong to anyone. And they should most definitely be free to choose who they love, because otherwise, how should they ever be able to be happy…”_

_“Yeah.”, Jennie replies and sends Lisa a tight-lipped smile. “I think so too.”_

_Lisa nods and takes a step closer, so their tights are almost touching._

_“You know, for what it’s worth – I’m sure your mom still found some form of happiness out of her marriage with your dad.”_

_She reaches forward and brushes a strand of hair from Jennie’s face. The skin tingles where she touches her._

_“After all it gave her you. And you’re a pretty great source of happiness, you know.”_

_Jennie blinks – she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry because Lisa just hit so many spots with so little words that she’s tongue tied once again. She just hopes that her eyes speak for themselves when she looks at her._

_They seem to, because Lisa’s huge ass smile says everything and her lips on Jennie’s say even more.  
_

\-------

Her phone blowing off shakes her out of her flashback and Jennie needs a second to realize where she is. 

She taps on the screen to see a message from Jisoo and she realizes that she still hadn’t answered her best friend yet. Whoops. 

Chichu <3:  
_Yo gurl, you went MIA since yesterday!? Your phone is usually glued to your hand, so I started a worldwide search operation. Just letting you know.  
Your ass better calling me within the next hour or I’m booking a flight to NY. I’m being serious Jendukie.  
And also, that whole stunt better has to do with the hot girl from apartment 34 or else I’m pissed.  
Okay, call me. I mean it! Luv ya_

Jennie chuckles and sets her alarm for exactly one hour and one minute.  
No way she will give in to Jisoo’s whiny ass. 

That’s what real friendship was about.  
Still, she can't wait to tell her all about last night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all are craaazy! so many people read this already, wowy. thank you :'D 
> 
> i always push the number of chapters, because really, i have no idea how long this will be - i have the story in my head, but I keep adding to it. whoops. 
> 
> hope you're all safe!
> 
> xoxo


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Umm, hi?”
> 
> Jennie’s head flips around, and she’s not met with the sight she was expecting. Like, not at all. The blood in her veins is rushing to her head and she almost feels dizzy.

#### Chapter 6

Jennie’s not really that surprised when she finds Lisa’s door unlocked when she drops by after another tiring day of work. 

She’s used to it by now – even though she’ll probably never understand how someone can have so much trust in the world. Or maybe it’s just so that Jennie can come by whenever she wants. At least that’s what Lisa had told her. Something within Jennie told her though that Lisa hadn’t locked her door even before they met a few weeks ago. 

Still Jennie was brought up well and she knocks before entering, even though Lisa most likely wouldn’t mind if she just barged in like she owned the place. 

“Hello?”, Jennie calls out. She doesn’t get a response, but she can hear the shower running and smiles to herself and maybe – just maybe – wishes that she could steal a glance, but then again, that would presumably be the death of her and she intended to live a little longer. 

So, Jennie moves to the living room area in order to find some distraction. She even is comfortable enough to plop down at the kitchen island and pour herself a glass of water – with her mouth suddenly somewhat dry. 

She toys around with the petals of some white roses absent mindedly - a whole ass bouquet standing in a vase in front of her - and Jennie only really pays attention to them when a tiny little note attached to them catches her eyes. She can’t even stop her eyes from flying over the words – it just happens, and somehow the big letters spelling ‘I LOVE YOU SO MUCH BBY’ make her breath catch in her throat. She’s pretty sure her heartbeat speeds up a notch. It’s not like she doesn’t trust Lisa – but… the thing with trust is, that Jennie has made some bad memories with it and it wasn’t always that easy to just shake it off. She wasn’t Taylor Swift after all.  
But Jennie was confident, that Lisa could explain everything after she was done showering and--. 

“Umm, hi?”

Jennie’s head flips around, and she’s not met with the sight she was expecting. Like, not at all. The blood in her veins is rushing to her head and she almost feels dizzy. 

“Who are you?”

Jennie would laugh if she wasn’t frozen to the spot because – she could ask the same, honestly.  
Standing before her wasn’t Lisa, but some other girl – only dressed in a bath towel, revealing way too much. Her long blond, wet hair was falling over her shoulders – leaving droplets of water on the floor.  
She looks like she just stepped out of a commercial and Jennie can feel her stomach drop the second she realizes that Lisa’s shower was still running. 

What the fuck? 

“I’m…”, she stutters but isn’t able to finish the sentence – there’s absolutely no salvia in her mouth anymore and Jennie’s aware that she looks like a freak right now. But her thoughts are running wild and she feels hot and cold and confused and angry and sad and all sorts of emotions. 

She gets up so fast that she almost knocks over the bouquet of roses – catching them at the last second with trembling hands. 

The other girl takes a step forward as a reaction - a frown appearing on her face when she realizes Jennie’s upset state. 

“I’m... I’m sorry.”, Jennie stammers. To the flowers or to the girl or to herself – she’s not quite sure but she feels the need to flee this scene as fast as possible. 

Her vis-à-vis looks as bewildered as Jennie feels. 

“Were you... were you looking for Lisa, ‘cause she’s still...”  
She points backwards and Jennie can put two and two together easily. Yeah. Fucking great. 

“No, I’m… I just wanted to borrow some… some sugar for my… cake.”  
What a great lie. She almost believes herself. Dumbass. She should just go. Run and never come back. This was the most embarrassing thing that ever happened in her life. 

The half-naked woman in front of her doesn’t seem to really believe her either, but still she points towards the cupboards. 

“Oh. Okay. I can give you some?” 

“No!”, Jennie says a little too loud – even though the sound of water splashing in Lisa’s bathroom was way louder. 

“No.”, Jennie repeats and moves past the girl in the towel. “It’s fine... I… I’ll just… go now. I’m sorry for… interrupting.” She motiones shortly at the girl’s outfit – if you can call it that – and ducks her head a little bit so she doesn't have to meet her eyes. 

“It’s fine… Do you… Do you want me to give Lisa a message?” 

“No.”, Jennie says again. “No, please, don’t even mention me.”

And with that she slips out the door of apartment 34 – never to return again. 

At least that’s her plan for the length of 10 blocks and then she stops running for the first time and takes a deep breath - which also feels like the first since she left her building. 

She’s not sure what she had been thinking about for the past 15 minutes or if she was even thinking at all because honestly – Jennie doesn’t know what to think.  
Within the past few weeks of her life, so many things had happened that she would’ve never thought were possible.  
Meeting Lisa, getting to know her and maybe even falling in love with her a little was not something Jennie had expected. And where Jennie Ruby Jane Kim was usually a person who planned out everything in life – this had been such a nice and new experience, that she didn’t question it.  
She just went with the flow – with whatever life threw at her, with whatever destiny had in store – but now she thinks that maybe it would’ve been better to first clarify a few principles. Like ‘are you already in a relationship with someone else?’ or ‘do you tend to sleep around?’ – but Jennie had not once felt the need to do so with Lisa because she felt like she just... somehow knew her.  
But joke’s on her because turns out she doesn’t know shit. 

Jennie sits down heavy on the nearest bench and buries her face in her hands. Suddenly those last few days she spent with Lisa seem like such a joke to her and wow the tears come easy and they don’t seem to stop anytime soon.  
She feels like the biggest idiot on the face of earth and she just can’t believe that she could’ve been so wrong. Normally her intuition about other people wasn’t this shitty – but of course she just had to be wrong about that one person she thought would finally be able to change the way she thought about love. 

Sure, Lisa didn’t owe her anything – after all they hadn’t yet talked about whatever they were. If they were anything at all. Probably not - after everything Jennie had seen tonight, she doubted that Lisa really cared about her at all.  
And then again, what if Jennie was just over-reacting? What if there was a plausible explanation for all of this? She just couldn’t – however hard she tried and no matter what she saw with her own two eyes – believe in her heart that Lisa was that kind of person.  
How could a human being with so much tenderness, compassion and light within them be a liar? It just didn’t add up – and still, the half-naked-woman in her apartment hung over all of this like a huge, dark raincloud. 

And speaking of rainclouds – Jennie can feel her tears mingle with falling raindrops and she can’t help but grimace. How fitting. Could this day get any worse? 

Of course it could. By the time she reaches her building, she’s soaking wet and cold and so very done with this day. All she wants is to fall into her bed face first and maybe knock herself out with two bottles of wine, so she can sleep through the next month. Something like that. 

Jennie realizes that she’s drowning herself in self-pity right now – but she feels like she deserves it.

She’s busy feeling sorry for herself when she enters the lobby and moves towards the elevator, and therefore she doesn’t see her right away. 

But when she does, she’s quick to change the direction of her steps and turn towards the staircase. 

Lisa is on her heels seconds later though – hasting up the stairs behind her, until she catches up and blocks the way with her body. 

“Jennie…”, she says and there’s a pleading tone in her voice.  
Jennie doesn’t look at her – because even after what happened at the apartment before – she knows she’s still not strong enough to resist Lisa’s puppy-eyes. 

“Leave me alone.”, she mumbles and squeezes past her but Lisa grabs her arm in the process and the touch alone makes Jennie stop in her tracks. Well fuck. Here goes nothing. 

“Please Jennie… hear me out.”, Lisa more or less whispers and Jennie’s surprised at how calm her voice is. 

She still doesn’t glance up, but she stays, and Lisa doesn’t waste one second to explain herself. Time is precious within important, life-changing moments – and this was one of them. 

“The girl you saw, Chaeng, she’s my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were 4. She lives over at Queens. She’s a musician, so whenever she has a late gig in New York she crashes at mine. Sometimes she stops by unannounced and sometimes she brings her girlfriend – like today.”

She pauses for the first time then – letting Jennie process all the things she just heard. 

It all sounds… amazingly plausible and Jennie somewhat feels guilty for the way her brain had come up with every other scenario but something like this. 

She shyly looks up at Lisa’s face for the first time and her breath leaves her lungs once again because Lisa looks so…. fragile and scared – where she’s usually crazy confident. 

“I’m sorry about the whole… shower-fiasco. I was still on my way home from work when you came by and I… I know what that must’ve looked like for you Jen, but I would never….”  
Lisa stops and her eyes drop to the ground.  
“I hope you know that I would never… do that. I mean I know we only just met and all, and there’s no... pressure or expectations from my side but… I really like you a lot and I would never intentionally hurt you, Jennie. You have to know that.”

She presses together her lips after her ramble and folds her hands in front of her stomach. She somehow looks so small that Jennie almost wants to cradle her like a baby and just hold her.  
Now that she’s looking at Lisa – being like this, all vulnerable and with such an honest look on her face – she wants to smack herself. How could she even for a second think that Lisa could ever do anything else than being the best human there was. 

Jennie takes a deep breath and one step, so that they were now standing beside each other. 

“I’m sorry...”, she apologizes and for the first time their eyes really meet. Jennie’s mesmerized once more – she could stare at Lisa’s orbs all day and still find a hundred new colors every other second. 

“I guess I… I didn’t… I mean, I guess I got a little jealous and… I don’t know.”

Lisa moves closer – Jennie’s eyes making her a little bolder again as she reaches out and touches her neck. 

“Jealous huh?”, she smirks lightly, and Jennie shakes her head a little at the change of dynamics. Lisa just had a way of turning serious situations into something so light, Jennie felt like she was flying. 

“Don’t flatter yourself too much.”, she remarks, but still leans into Lisa’s touch. It’s so warm. 

“Still… you were jealous.”, Lisa grins and moves even closer – their bodies now pressed together and their faces only inches apart. “That’s kinda cute.”

“Yeah well, what can I say…”, Jennie barely gets out. Lisa’s close proximity makes it hard to focus on anything else but her and Jennie can’t stop staring at her lips. It was probably very obvious, because they turn into a soft smile immediately. 

“It’s probably because I totally like you too.”

“Ah...”, Lisa makes and seals the deal by closing the gap between their mouths – pressing Jennie’s tiny body onto the stairwell wall. 

They both smile into the kiss as Lisa deepens it and Jennie throws her arms around her neck, holding on tightly to hopefully never having to let go again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL! 
> 
> thank you guys so much with stickin' up with this story and all the love!  
> i really appreciate it so much. it's always such a nice feeling, knowing that your "work" is being valued. 
> 
> i hope you like this chapter and i hope you all have wonderful holidays, especially now. 
> 
> xoxo


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Jennie. Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung. Jennie.”, Lisa introduces them for real this time – a huge ass smile on her face.
> 
> “Jennie… Jennie…”, Lisa’s best friend repeats – her face one big question mark. “Yeah, if I think reaaaaally hard about it I remember you mentioning her once or twice… or maybe ten thousand times.”

#### Chapter 7

“Hi again.”

They meet her at the door to apartment 34 and she’s wearing actual clothes this time. Jennie’s pretty glad about it. She’s not a prude but she’s always had some sort of reluctance when it came to other people’s nudeness. Or half-nakedness. Or whatever. 

“Hi.”, she still feels a little ashamed because of what had happened earlier, but she returns the gesture when the blonde girl leans in to hug her. 

“Jennie. Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung. Jennie.”, Lisa introduces them for real this time – a huge ass smile on her face.

“Jennie… Jennie…”, Lisa’s best friend repeats – her face one big question mark. “Yeah, if I think reaaaaally hard about it I remember you mentioning her once or twice… or maybe ten thousand times.”

She earns a punch to her shoulder from Lisa, who actually gets a little flustered, and a giggle from Jennie, who finds this rather amusing.

“And still your sorry ass didn’t feel the need to acknowledge that earlier, huh.”

The blonde girl just shrugs and sends Jennie an apology-smile. 

“Not everyone’s brains work all normal when unknown people stand in their flat, Lice.”

“It’s not your flat, bro.”, Lisa returns and shakes her head. “Anyway. Are you heading to the bar?”, Lisa changes the subject quickly – her red cheeks glowing. She casts a little side-glance at Jennie who’s just grinning back at her. 

“Yup.”, Chaeyoung nods and points at the inexistent clock on her wrist. “I’m actually late. Ava already left half an hour ago. Are you guys coming later as well?” 

Jennie’s utterly confused but Lisa’s there to her rescue. 

“We don’t know yet. But I’ll text you.”

“Sure.”, Chaeyoung sends them both a smile and then moves a little closer to Lisa’s side. Still Jennie’s able to hear everything she hushes – and the blonde girl is probably aware of that. Maybe she’s even doing it on purpose. 

“Also text me if you don’t want me to come back after the show. You know.. if you two want some privacy or-.”

“Oooookaaaaay.”, Lisa interrupts and puts a hand over her friend’s mouth. At this Jennie can’t suppress her laughter and it only dies down when Chaeyoung wrings herself out of Lisa’s grip and slowly takes off – walking backwards and waving at them with a mischievous look on her face. 

Jennie grins when Lisa opens the door to her home for her and she realizes that this is the first time that Lisa has let her inside by herself. 

It’s strange to Jennie how the sudden realization of them being alone together again makes her heart skip a beat.  
She doesn’t really know how long they were making out in the stairwell, but it sure felt like hours and still – Jennie wasn’t quite satisfied yet. She could kiss Lisa for the rest of her life. And she was planning to. 

“What’s with the look?”, Lisa asks and gently helps Jennie out of her coat. 

“What look?”

“This one.”, Lisa spins her around and nudges her nose with her index finger. 

“Oh this...”, Jennie scrunches up her nose and lets her hands fall on top of Lisa’s shoulders. The urge to pull her close is something Jennie probably won’t be able to get rid off ever again. 

“That’s all your fault.”, she whines and can’t help but bite her lower lip at the way Lisa looks down at her.  
Her pupils are dilatated like a cat watching its prey. Ordinarily she would reject such a comparison, but with Lisa, she’ll gladly be the prey. 

“How is that my fault?”, Lisa asks coyly – even though Jennie can feel that she knows the answer to her question. She just wants to tease, she can read it in her eyes. 

“Because…”, Jennie drags out and brings her face even closer to Lisa’s – she can feel her hot breath on her face and it’s doing things to her. 

“That’s what my face does when I look at you. I can’t really help it, you know. It even does it when I think about you.”

“Is that so?”

“Are you complaining?”

“Not at all.”, Lisa’s right hand comes up and curls around Jennie’s neck – her thumb gently stroking the soft skin there. “I really like that look, but I guess.. I like every look of yours.” 

Jennie sends her a smile that Lisa reciprocates immediately. 

“I think someone’s a little swooned.” 

Lisa gasps and raises an eyebrow, making Jennie laugh in response. 

“And I think someone else is getting a little cocky here.”

“You like it.”, Jennie finds and blinks at the other girl. Lisa just holds her gaze – not moving an inch. 

“Fuck yes.”, she mumbles as her eyes drop to Jennie’s lips once again – the mere look making Jennie’s breath catch in her throat.  
She’s had some lovers before. She’s not new to the beginning stages of relationships or flings or whatever but still, it’s different with Lisa.  
Everything within her screamed at her that she was moving way too fast with this, that her feelings grew way too strong and yet – Jennie couldn’t care less. Everything her head told her – her heart refuted.  
It was just so easy. Everything with Lisa came easy. And Jennie knew that she wanted this – this incomparable feeling she had when she was with her and she wanted it for the rest of her life. 

“Where’s your phone?”, Jennie asks – still very much out of breath because Lisa still looks at her like she wants to do all kinds of things to her. 

Lisa’s quite surprised at the question – her eyebrows rising in puzzlement, but she still reaches into her back pocket – pulling out her mobile. 

“Here. Why?”

“I’m afraid you have to text Chaeyoung that we need some privacy tonight…”

Jennie’s never seen someone type _that_ fast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> g'day, hello and welcome back. 
> 
> i hope you all had wonderful Holidays! 
> 
> chapter 7 - here we go. a little short but whatever, right. 
> 
> hope you enjoy. let me know. 
> 
> as always, stay safe my friends:)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You should stop thinking so hard.” 
> 
> “Sorry, did I wake you?”, she asks apologetic. Lisa takes a deep breath and Jennie wonders for a second if she smells of sex. She probably does. They both do. 
> 
> “Your loud thoughts have.”

##### Chapter 8

Jennie’s always been a light sleeper. Ever since she was little, even the slightest noise or light could wake her – no matter how tired her body was. 

So, it’s no surprise to her when she wakes up in the middle of the night – a police car outside driving by, it’s sirens loud through the half open window. She usually wears ear plugs and for a moment Jennie’s confused as to why she didn’t put them in – but it’s only seconds later when she feels a soft weight on her waist and her eyes adapt to the darkness.   
All her nerves start to tingle, and she focuses on the way her skin burns with someone pressed against her back. Flashbacks of earlier come crashing down and she almost chokes on her own breath - her face turning hot and probably very red as well.   
Her parents would be very disappointed in her right now and to be honest, Jennie from a few weeks ago would be as well. Never sleep with anyone until at least the third date. That was her rule. One that she probably had taken over after her mother had told her so a million times, but still.   
And here she was – completely ignoring something she had lived by all her life. And she wasn’t even the slightest bit sorry about it.   
This thing with Lisa – whatever it was – had been something else from the very beginning. Obviously. Because who meets someone by accidentally breaking into their home? Twice.   
Only Jennie – that’s who.   
Also, something her parents always held against her. That she should go through life with open eyes. Who would’ve thought that her ignoring her parent’s advice would be the reason she was closest to happiness that she’d ever been in her life. It scared her to death, because she knew that happiness only ever lasted that long, and yet, Jennie couldn’t help the little smile creeping onto her lips. Maybe her doing everything wrong was actually her finally doing something right. 

“You should stop thinking so hard.” 

Lisa stirs a little behind her and Jennie feels how the Thai moves even closer – nuzzling her face into her hair.   
A small giggle escapes Jennie’s lips and she turns her head slightly – one side of Lisa’s face visible to her now and it’s enough to make her tummy twist. 

“Sorry, did I wake you?”, she asks apologetic. Lisa takes a deep breath and Jennie wonders for a second if she smells of sex. She probably does. They both do. 

“Your loud thoughts have.”, Lisa answers a second after and intertwines the fingers of her hand over the other girl’s waist with Jennie’s. She gives a little squeeze and places a soft kiss onto Jennie’s neck. 

“I’m sorry.”, the short girl mumbles – not really able to concentrate with Lisa’s hot breath and lips on her.   
“I’m a very light sleeper.” 

“Mhhh..”, Lisa makes and tries to get even closer – making Jennie laugh in response, because honestly, there was no such thing anymore with Lisa almost being on top of her. Again. 

“Where were you just then?”

Jennie contemplates for a moment if she should tell her or just wave it off, but something she had realized quite fast was how talking to Lisa somehow always made things so much clearer. Especially her own jumbled thoughts. It was funny and terrifying to her all the same, because she had only known this girl for such a short amount of time. 

So she squirms a little – wiggling herself out of Lisa’s embrace, but only to turn around and face her – the younger girl’s arms around her center seconds later.   
Even though it’s quite dark in the room, with only the faint light from the street creeping through Lisa’s curtains, Jennie can make out the concerned look on her face.   
So, she reaches up to smoothen the wrinkles on Lisa’s forehead, as if to tell her that everything was okay.   
Lisa gives a faint smile at that and drapes her leg over Jennie’s under the duvet. 

“It was nothing.”, Jennie says – breaking the silence again. “I was just thinking about how glad I am that I don’t always follow rules.” 

Lisa’s eyes reflect the moving lights outside – making her brown orbs sparkle even more and Jennie has to bite her own tongue in order not to comment on how beautiful she looked even in darkness. 

“You mean like breaking and entering?” 

Lisa snorts and Jennie feels something warm rise inside her chest at the sound. She can’t help but make a face – pinching Lisa’s arm slightly.   
The older girl stilled for a moment – thinking carefully about her next words. 

“Like not falling head over heels.” 

“Into some strangers apartment?” 

Lisa’s words were coated in a joke, but her eyes were alert and staring right into Jennie’s soul. Like they always did – sending a shiver down the Korean’s spine. 

“Into some strangers arms.”, Jennie specified – moving one hand up to place it on Lisa’s cheek and softly running her thumb up and down the smooth skin there. 

Lisa’s content sight and her eyes fluttering close would’ve been answer enough, but then she cranes her neck a little until their foreheads are touching and she places a soft kiss onto Jennie’s full lips. 

They stay like that for what feels like an eternity – sharing little, sloppy kisses and Jennie’s almost sure that that’s the end of their conversation – but then she hears Lisa’s whispered words like they’re the loudest thing on earth: 

“I’m so fucking glad that you’re a rebel like that, Jennie Kim.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry.. it's been about a million years since my last upload. 
> 
> studies are like: where's my liquor? 
> 
> anyway, hope you enjoy this short one. let me know. 
> 
> xoxo


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When she leaps around the corner and into the kitchen, she can’t stop herself from screaming out “Hands up or…” - the words getting stuck in the back of her throat.
> 
> “Or what? You gonna shoot me with Chanel No. 5?”
> 
> “Oh my God.”, Jennie breathes. “What are you doing in my apartment?”

**Chapter 9**

Jennie steps out of her shower and quickly grabs her towel, wrapping it around her body to shield her from the cold.  
She loves her appartement – that is out of question – but the one thing she always wished for was a heater in her bathroom. She liked showering hot and hated being cold again only seconds later.  
That was also why she preferred showering at Lisa’s – though the girl’s electronic heating machine wasn’t the only reason.  
She gets dressed in a hast – glad about the warm wool socks her mother got her as a Christmas present last year. She’s mid putting on an oversized yellow hoodie she stole from Lisa last night, when she hears a strange noise coming from her kitchen. 

Jennie freezes in her spot – her heartrate quickening when the noises get louder.  
This was it. She was going to get murdered by a burglar, like she always dreamed about.  
She presses her ear against the bathroom door and listens – careful to not breathe too loud, or at all. She tries remembering if she locked the main door, but her mind draws a blank. She was talking to Lisa on the phone when she came back from work and the only thing Jennie remembered clearly, was the soft laugh of the girl on the other end of the call when she had told her that she missed her apartment and therefore would spend the night at hers. 

She loses track of her thoughts when she hears another noise that sounds a lot like someone operating with cooking pots, which only makes the frown on her bare face grow wider. Why would someone break into her home and then casually start going through her kitchen?  
Out of instinct, Jennie reaches for her Chanel perfume – since she doesn’t own a pepper spray, this would have to do.  
She pulls open the door as quietly as she can and sneaks through the corridor like an animal on the hunt – her heart in her throat and her “weapon” in a tight grip. 

When she leaps around the corner and into the kitchen, she can’t stop herself from screaming out “Hands up or…” - the words getting stuck in the back of her throat.

“Or what? You gonna shoot me with Chanel No. 5?”

“Oh my God.”, Jennie breathes. “What are you doing in my apartment?” 

“Your apartment? Wait…. this isn’t apartment 34? My bad. Must’ve mixed up the doors or something.” 

Jennie shakes her head and lowers the perfume bottle onto the kitchen counter before putting her hand theatrically over her chest – faking a heart attack. The smile on her face betraying her though. 

“You’re so funny.”, she grins – moving closer towards the intruder and wrapping her arms around the girl’s waist. 

“So I’ve been told.”, Lisa replies with a smug look on her face – her busy hands leaving the pans to rub Jennie’s arms tenderly. 

“You scared me a little. How did you get in?”

The smile on Lisa’s face doesn’t vanish, but she tenses up a smidgen and Jennie is quick to shake her head – reassuring her that she’s okay. 

“I’m sorry.”, the Thai girl says nonetheless – placing a soft kiss onto Jennie’s forehead. “I didn’t mean to. Your door was unlocked, so I thought I would surprise you and you know…” She nods towards the hotplates. “Start making us some dinner. And before you say anything – I know we didn’t make plans or anything for tonight, and if you wanna be by yourself that’s totally okay, but I just… I missed you all day and I just wanted to--.”  
Jennie cuts her off mid-sentence by putting her lips onto hers and pulling her in until every part of her is touching the other girl. She hopes Lisa gets that she could never get enough of her. Her lips, her warmth, her presence, her everything. 

When they separate again, there’s a faint blush on Lisa’s cheeks that makes her look like a lovestruck teenage-boy and Jennie can’t help but smile at that endearing sight.  
Lisa seems to read Jennie’s thoughts once again, as she puts one hand over her own face and mumbles “Don’t… It’s embarrassing.”. 

“It’s not. It’s cute.”

“But I’m not cute. I’m the cool one, remember?”

Jennie laughs and pats Lisa’s stomach. 

“Since when are you the cool one?” 

“Uhm, hello? Since always? I’m Lalisa the cool one Manoban.”

“Well, Miss I’m-the-cool-one, I hate to break it to you, but I think your coolness is fading a little bit.” 

Lisa straightens her back, as if to regain some composure but Jennie follows her moves and squeezes her sides – making the Thai girls eyes flutter for a second, lost in the touch. 

“Yeah, just see what you did there.”

“Are you telling me, that it’s my fault?”

“Well obviously. Must be your cuteness rubbing off on me.”, Lisa shrugs.

“I’m not cute.”, Jennie whines in response – earning a laugh from the other girl who pokes her cheeks repeatedly. 

“Sure you’re not, dumpling.”, Lisa grins – reaching for the fabric ribbons of Jennie’s sweater and pulling on them slightly. “Nice hoodie by the way. Totally not cute at all that you’re wearing my clothes.”

Her grin widens when Jennie rolls her eyes and she pulls at the pullover some more, until their faces are only inches apart again. 

“Yellow suits you, you know.”, Lisa whispers against Jennie’s mouth.

“You know what suits me even better?”, the shorter girl asks while closing her eyes at their close proximity. 

“You.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in celebration and preparation of THE SHOW*
> 
> here's chapter 9 
> 
> hope you enjoy :D
> 
> xoxo


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jennie knows something is up the minute she sets foot into the apartment. 
> 
> “I have to tell you something.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wohooo, two chapters in one day? HELL YES. 
> 
> i really liked writing this one.  
> 'njoy! 
> 
> lots of love for all of you reading this. 
> 
> xx

**Chapter 10**

Jennie knows something is up the minute she sets foot into the apartment. She can somehow always sense Lisa’s nervousness – like that time she went to see one of the dance competitions Lisa’s kids participated in and all it took was for her to arrive at the venue in order to know how on edge the Thai girl was. She didn’t even need to see her or talk to her. She just knew, because she could feel it – she could always feel her. 

Today it comes as a surprise though and Jennie can’t quite figure out a reason as to why the other girl would be nervous – which somehow makes her tense up a little.  
They had been on a good, stable path the past few weeks. Lisa even got to meet Jisoo over facetime and they had seemed to hit it off immediately – resulting in a text from Jisoo later that night stating ‘damn girl, you did good! if you weren’t already, I would totally wanna tap that.’ and Jennie ignoring her for a solid 2 days because of that naughty remark.  
So, Jennie would say that they were on pretty good terms right now, but something about the atmosphere in the room makes her feel uneasy.

She takes a deep breath before entering the living room – not quite sure what she was bracing herself for.  
Lisa sits on the edge of her couch with her knee jumping up and down, just like it always does when something important is on her mind. She’s absently looking at the TV screen, even though the TV isn’t on. That’s when Jennie knows she’s right. Something is definitely wrong. 

“Hey you.”, she says quietly - not wanting to startle the other girl who’s clearly lost in her own thoughts. 

Lisa’s head jerks up and so does her body, hitting her knee on the coffee table and hissing at the pain it causes – her eyes never leaving Jennie’s though. 

“Ouch, fuck….”, she lets out in a huff, before mumbling an apology right after which Jennie follows suit. 

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s fine.”, Lisa answers and moves closer towards the Korean, leaning down to place a chaste kiss on her cheek and Jennie almost screams right then and there. Lisa never greets her like that – not when they haven’t seen and kissed each other for two whole days.  
Jennie knows that she’s not breathing properly anymore, and she can already feel the tears burning behind her eyelids and it really takes everything in her to not start sobbing that very second. She tries to remember anything she could’ve done wrong since the last time they’ve seen each other – because something clearly must’ve slipped her attention.  
Before she can think of something though - Lisa’s voice echoes through the room – her words cutting the tension like a knife. 

“I have to tell you something.” 

Jennie gulps and realizes that she had been staring down at her hands which were fiddling with the hem of her shirt nervously.  
When she finally looks back up again, she sees Lisa staring back at her from the couch – patting the space beside her. 

Suddenly, Jennie panics and it’s completely out of character for her. She’s usually a very composed person who deals with setbacks like a champ – gulp down the tears and move on – but right now the only thing she can think of is that if she flees the scene, then Lisa doesn’t get a chance to tell her whatever it is she wants to tell her.  
Before she can even move a muscle though, Lisa’s by her side once more – reaching for her hands and softly pulling her towards the furniture.  
Jennie recognizes how sweaty the other girl’s hands are and how she repeatedly licks her lips before biting down on them as soon as they are seated. 

Jennie closes her eyes for a second – bracing herself for the landslide that’s about to hit. She almost wants to beg – beg her not to leave, to believe in them and their love – because she knows in her heart that it’s so fucking worth it. But before she can even open her mouth, Lisa’s fingers are on her cheek and Jennie can hear her take a deep breath. 

“Jen…? What’s wrong? You’re crying.”

Jennie opens her eyes and only then realizes how right Lisa is. The tears are rolling down her face one after the other and she just shrugs because fuck, she’s the last to know what’s wrong and still something is.  
Her sight meets the Thai girl’s and the confused look on her vis-à-vis’ face is almost giving her a headache. 

“Just say it Lisa… please. Make it quick.”, Jennie pleads, but Lisa only squints her eyes and wipes her thumbs over puffy cheeks once again. 

“I have no idea what’s going on right now.”, Lisa then states, and Jennie almost wants to laugh because, well, same. She’s getting more confused by the second and it starts to make her irritated, so she pushes again. 

“Say it.” 

“Okay…”, Lisa drags out – her bewildered look not leaving her face, but she follows the orders of the shorter girl. She takes a deep breath before stuttering out: “I ehm… I wanted to… ask… I mean… it’s been almost two months and…. you know... I…. I’m…. I just…” 

Jennie’s vision is blurred a little due to the tears, but she can make out how Lisa’s hand moves from her own towards her back pocket and the next thing she knows is that she feels something cold in the palm of her right hand. 

Her heart is beating so fast that Jennie’s actually afraid of a heart attack and when she looks down at her hands, she’s sure she has one. 

There, in the palm of her hand that’s still held by Lisa’s lies a silver key that looks almost like the one she carries around on her keychain.  
To say that she’s perplexed would be a huge ass understatement. Jennie Kim is stunned.  
Her eyes move from her hand up to Lisa’s eyes and back almost ten times before the girl in front of her finds her voice again. 

“It’s not… I mean.. You don’t have to.. but you know I figured… it would be easier since.. you always hang around here anyway and…. God. I’m so sorry. I’m terrible at this.”, Lisa stammers and lowers her head a little bit out of embarrassment.

Jennie looks down at the key again – a laugh escaping her mouth the second the huge weight on her heart drifts away and realization hits her. 

“Are you…. Are you asking me to move in with you?” 

Lisa just sends her a faint smile and a little nod and shrugs – but when she sees Jennies lighted up face, her face breaks into that big smile Jennie fell for the very first time they saw each other. It’s extraterrestrial and it soothes every inch of anxiety that was left in Jennie’s body. 

She encloses the key in her hand and leaps forward – her lips pressed onto Lisa’s hard as she laughs into the kiss.  
Lisa kisses her back immediately, nibbling on her lower lip whilst Jennie’s arms move around her neck. 

They only break the kiss when they feel the urgent need for oxygen.  
Lisa rests her forehead against Jennie’s for another moment – glad about the closeness and the fact that her heartbeat was almost back to normal.  
She softly strokes the skin on Jennie’s waist under her shirt and clears her throat. 

“So… does that mean yes then?”, she asks coyly as their eyes meet once again. 

Jennie really doesn’t have to after that kiss – but she’s never before been happier to give her consent. "But only if I am allowed to actually use the key to lock the door." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow I only JUST NOW realized how I used the French-version of the word 'apartment' in my title SINCE FOREVER and that that's not the way you say it in English....
> 
> wow.... 
> 
> how embarrassing. whoops, my bad ;D


	11. Chaper 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I have a good and a not so good surprise for you.” 
> 
> Lisa lifts one eyebrow and looks at the closed door behind them. 
> 
> “Okaaaaay..”, she drags out and furrows her forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this might be my best one yet. 
> 
> a little fluff for ya'll. 
> 
> hope you enjoy. 
> 
> xx

**Chapter 11**

“Okay, I really hate to break it to you, Jendukie, but you’re like a thousand precent whipped.” 

Jennie rolls her eyes and glances at her watch absent mindedly. 

“You already told me that like ten times within the past two minutes. I think I got it.” 

Jisoo snorts at the other end and Jennie can make out her shrug, even though she cannot really see anything but Jisoo's forehead and a little bit of her eyebrow at the moment.  
Jennie knows she’s driving to work right now and any other day she would’ve kicked her ass for face-timing while driving but right now she just has other things to worry about.  
Like Chaeyong’s delay for example. 

She glances at her watch again, which earns her a growl from her best friend. 

“She still not there yet?”, Jisoo asks and she sounds more annoyed than Jennie feels when she shakes her head no. 

“When’s your appointment again?”

“Fifteen minutes ago.”, Jennie answers and sights – her eyes searching the crowd for some bright blond hair. 

“I swear to God that girl…”, Jisoo mutters and Jennie can’t help but grin at her antics. She’s always way too supportive for her own good.  
“You don’t even know her.”, she grins and can’t suppress a laugh when Jisoo moves even closer to the camera so only her right eye is on display. 

“And who’s fault is that, huh? From what Lisa tells me, Chaeng-Chaeng is quite the beauty and you know how much I like beautiful girls.” 

“Ah...”, Jennie winks at her phone. “That’s what’s up. She has a girlfriend though, you know.” 

“A reason, but not an obstacle.”, Jisoo retorts and Jennie’s eyes are in the back of her head once again. She loved Jisoo with all her heart but sometimes she was just a tad too naïve. 

She almost wants to tell her so, but she doesn’t get around doing that when she can feel someone tap on her shoulder and when she turns around, she’s face to face with a very miserable looking Chaeyoung. Her hair is a literal mess and her make-up everywhere but her eyes - tear streaks down both of her cheeks. 

“Oh my God, what happened?”, Jennie lets out and holds her breath – the phone in her hand long forgotten and Jisoo’s complaining only audible weakly when she stuffs her cell phone into her jacket pocket.  
Jennie embraces the taller girl in a hug when said one starts stammering something about a fight and when the words cheating and breakup come out of Chaeyoungs mouth, Jennie has to close her eyes in order not to start crying herself.  
They stay like that for quite some time – Lisa’s best friend silently crying into Jennie’s shoulder. It’s heartbreaking, Jennie thinks and she wishes that Lisa was there with them right now, because she would know what to do – how to help, while Jennie just feels lost. She knows the feeling though – unfortunately, and she wishes so bad that Chaeyoung can sense her empathy. 

“I’m so sorry.”, Jennie repeats over and over and after the twentieth time, the girl she’s holding seems to calm down a little bit. 

They both take a small step back – Jennie’s hand still on Chaeyoungs arm. 

“Sorry I’m late.”

“Please, don’t worry about that.”, Jennie says. “You didn’t have to come... if you want a raincheck then I totally underst-.” “No, please. I can use a distraction right now.” 

Jennie nods and then gets startled a little, when she hears a loud scream coming from her jacket. 

“Oh shoot…”, she murmurs and pulls out her phone again – a very angry looking Jisoo on display. 

“Jen, what the fuck?!”, her best friend grumbles, but then she casts a glance to the right where Chaeyoung is standing next to Jennie and her face softens within a second. 

“Oh no, who died?”

Jennie would’ve smacked her on the head if she was there with them but since this was only a phone call, all she can do is squeeze her eyes shut and shake her head.  
Contrary to her expectations though, Chaeyoung smiles faintly and moves closer within Jisoo’s line of sight. 

“My relationship apparently.”, she explains and for a moment Jennie’s afraid that Jisoo might say something rather stupid – she’s like that sometimes – but she is being taught better by her best friend. 

“Well fuck... I’m sorry.”

The blonde shrugs – probably at a loss for words. 

“For them I mean. What a shame to screw it up with someone like you.” 

Chaeyoung’s eyes dart to the floor before she looks back up at the phone that’s still in Jennie’s hand. 

“What makes you think that she was the one who fucked up? Could’ve been me too.” 

“No way!”, Jisoo almost shouts and Jennie has to really stop herself from rolling her eyes again. “Look at your precious self. I bet you couldn’t hurt a fly.” 

Chaeyoung stills and Jennie’s not quite sure if she’s about to get mad – but then she spots a small smile on her lips that quickly turns into one that reaches her eyes.  
It brings out the faintest shade of red on Jisoo’s cheeks and Jennie makes a mental note to tease her for that later. 

“Okay beautiful girl... And Jennie.”, the dark haired on the display says – making Chaeyoung swallow a giggle and Jennie hiss annoyed. “I have to get started with work, I’m afraid. And you two also have important plans if I’m not wrong.” 

She points at the screen and her eyes find Jennie’s once again. “You.”, she says determinant. “Call me tomorrow and tell me how it went. And I want pictures.” 

They end the call after waving their goodbyes and Jennie puts away the phone while silently watching Chaeyoung who somehow looks much more at ease than some minutes ago. 

They both don’t say anything until they reach their destination though and just right before they enter the store, the blonde girl says: “Your friend is cute.” 

Jennie only side-eyes her and laughs. “Please. She’s an idiot. That’s what she is.” 

“Maybe. But a cute idiot… anyway. Speaking of cute. I have a suggestion to make.” 

Jennie blinks and can’t keep her face from lightening up big time. 

“Let’s hear.” 

_____________________________

Jennie greets Lisa at the door which earns her a slightly suspicious look from the Thai girl. 

“Okay so either you have burned down our apartment and you’re waiting for the fire brigade or the spider in the bathroom returned and you locked yourself out on purpose.”

The Korean glares at her, before holding up her index finger. 

“One, I’m the most careful person on earth when it comes to fire and two-.” She holds up another finger in count. “You told me you killed that spider, you big liar.” 

Lisa laughs and reaches for Jennie to pull her close and place a kiss on her mouth. 

“Why hello to you too, gorgeous.”

She puts another small kiss on Jennie’s lips. 

“Care to tell me the real reason for you catching me at the door then?” 

“Well…”, Jennie sights – her hands fiddling with the zipper of Lisa’s coat. “I have a good and a not so good surprise for you.” 

Lisa lifts one eyebrow and looks at the closed door behind them. 

“Okaaaaay..”, she drags out and furrows her forehead. “Do I need to guess?” 

Jennie laughs briefly before shaking her head. 

“No... ehm. So, Chaeyoung is here. And uhm… she’s a little shaken up because well… her and Ava broke up.”

“WHAT?”, Lisa practically shouts at the other girls face – only realizing her outburst when Jennie jumps at the sound. 

“Sorry.. but.. are you for real? What the hell happened?” 

“It’s… it’s probably better when she tells you herself.”

“Oh my God.”, Lisa stresses after scanning Jennie’s facial expression. “That motherfucker cheated on her, didn’t she?”

Jennie remains still – knowing very well that her other surprise would be overshadowed tonight. She understood though. If the roles were reversed and this happened to Jisoo, she would most likely already be on a plane to Korea to kick some ass. 

“I’m going to kill that stupid-.” “Okaaaaaay, calm down babe. Chaeng’s fine. We had tea, took a walk and talked for a long time. I assure you she’ll be okay. Why don’t we take a deep breath and then head in. They’re waiting for you in the living room.” 

“Okay.”, Lisa says as she follows Jennie’s instruction and breathes in and out deeply and slowly a few times, before tilting her head slightly. 

“Wait... did you say ‘they’? Who else is here?” 

Jennie only sends her a tight-lipped smile and nods towards the door. 

“Let’s find out.” 

Lisa’s long legs take her to the living-room quickly and Jennie has to hurry in order to keep up with her.  
She watches closely as Lisa’s eyes fall onto her best friend who’s sitting comfortably between two cushions – her eyes fixed on a little grey fury something laying in her lap. 

“Oh hey. There you are.”, Chaeyoung beams up at her – everything else that day long forgotten the second she speaks out the words: “Lisa, meet Leo.”

“Oh. My. God.”, Lisa stammers after what felt like an eternity – her big eyes fixed on the small animal sleeping comfortably on top of her best friends’ legs.  
She’s shuffling closer – careful not to make any loud noises and gets down on her knees when she reaches the couch. 

Jennie stifles a laugh at Lisa’s absolutely stunned and mesmerized state and somehow it feels like she’s watching someone falling in love for the first time in their life.  
Jennie would probably be jealous if it weren’t for the fact that she too, was utterly and undeniably in love with their new family member. 

Lisa squeals when she first touches the little cat and Chaeyoung and Jennie share a knowing look. 

“I can’t believe you got us a cat.”, the Thai girl whispers – her eyes never leaving Leo.  
“I love you so much.” 

Jennie snorts, because Lisa is still looking at Leo when she says it, but she knows in her swelling heart that it’s not only meant for the little fur-ball. 

And it turns out that she’s right – Lisa lifting her eyes to send her the biggest smile she’s ever seen on someone. 

“Both of you.” 

“Ehem…”, Chaeyoung clears her throat audibly. 

“Okay, okay. All three of you. And don’t think I’ve forgotten about what Jennie told me outside. After I’m able to function again properly, I wanna hear everything.” 

The two girls share a look, and then Lisa gestures for Jennie to join her on the floor, next to their new baby and the shorter girl obliges easily. 

Lisa leans into her the second she’s next to her – her head on her shoulder but her heart-shaped-eyes on the kitten. 

“Thank you Jennie.”, she mumbles under her breath. “Thank you for Leo.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisala<3: I’m gonna stay at Chaengs for a few days. Can you please take care of Leo? Thank you. We can talk when I’m back. I need some time to think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i promised you some fluff, didn't I? well... my bad... 
> 
> we need to earn ourselves the fluff first I guess... sorry ;)

**Chapter 12**

“Miss Kim.”

Kai strolls into her office with a big grin on his face and lets himself fall into the chair opposite her desk.  
Jennie merely looks up from her laptop and only nods – tipping away at the E-mail she was working on. 

“Are you joining us for lunch? Julie and the others seem to have some gossip about that photographer who screwed up the spring-shoot last week.” 

He raises an eyebrow and Jennie only nods slightly at his words. She’s never been one interested in gossip and she much rather stayed out of it. She had always been very professional and she intended to keep it that way. 

“I don’t really have time.”, she mutters and casts a look at the clock. To be fair it was lunchtime and she hadn’t had anything else but coffee today. She should probably eat something or else Lisa would get angry at her again – the Thai girl always telling her that she needed real food in order to keep her energy up, ever since Jennie let slip once that she sometimes forgot. 

“Oh, come on pretty girl. You need to eat, don’t you?”

“I guess.”, Jennie hears herself say and before she even can say anything else, Kai leans over and shuts her laptop. He sends her a wink and gestures towards the door with his head as a silent order.  
Jennie would’ve rolled her eyes and probably told him to never do that again, but her stomach is rumbling right then and there and she thinks that maybe he’s right. 

They make their way down and whilst the ride in the elevator is silent – Jennie can still feel his eyes on her. It makes her cringe more than a little and she averts her gaze and looks down at her shoes, hoping that he’d stop.  
He only does though when they meet Julie and the other models at the ground floor – everyone exchanging friendly greetings.  
Julie starts telling her inside story right away and everyone seems to be hanging on her lips except for Jennie who is being called back by a familiar voice that doesn’t quite fit into this surrounding. 

She turns around to find Lisa walking towards them – her distinctive smile lighting up her face. Jennie notices how her work-friends stop chatting – looking expectantly at the Thai girl approaching them. Especially Kai seems to be rather interested in Lisa’s appearance – his eyes moving up and down her body, checking her out unabashedly. 

“Hey. I was just on my way to see you.”, Lisa says as she comes face to face with Jennie, who suddenly feels a little tense. She feels a half dozen eyes on her and it makes her insides squirm in a painful way. That feeling had always been the first indication of her panic attacks and she tries to push that thought out of her mind when she steps forward to give Lisa an awkward hug before the other girl can do anything else in front of her co-workers. 

Kai shuffles closer as soon as the two girls part and practically shoves himself between them. 

“Well hello there. I’m Kai. Who do we have the pleasure with here?”, he asks and grins at Lisa in a way that most people would describe as creepy. Jennie feels the urge to punch him in the face, but all she can do is gulp. The pain in her stomach increasing. 

Lisa looks at him confused for a second before answering. “Nice to meet you, Kai. I’m Lisa. I’m Jennie’s--.” “Friend!”, Jennie hears herself interrupting a tad too loud. 

She knows that her colleagues can’t – but she definitely feels the air around them change and she knows that Lisa does too, even if she doesn’t have the courage to look at her. She feels guilty not even a second after but something inside her refuses to correct herself. 

“Friend.”, Lisa repeats and Jennie knows by the tone of her voice that she picked up on what was happening here and she was not happy about it. The big smile on her face had disappeared.  
“Yeah, I’m Jennie’s friend.” 

“Oh great.”, Kai almost shouts and moves even closer to Lisa. “Any friend of Jennie is a friend of mine.”  
He winks at her and Jennie wants to vomit right then and there. Because of him or because of herself – she’s not entirely sure. Probably both. 

They all stand there rather awkwardly for another moment before Lisa speaks up again – her voice thin and her eyes searching for Jennie’s who’s still not really looking at her – too afraid of the disappointment she’s sure to find. 

“Well I was just passing by and thought I would ask my _friend_ if she wanted to have lunch, but I’m suddenly not very hungry anymore so…”, Lisa says while taking a step back from them. “I’ll just go. It was nice meeting you all.” 

She casts another look at Jennie’s face and then she waves at her work-mates who return the gesture in a friendly manner. 

Lisa’s gone as suddenly as she appeared and Jennie lets herself breathe for the first time since she said _that_ word but the sharp intake of air hurts her lungs the same amount as her heart hurts and she almost chokes.  
She’s determined not to start crying in front of Kai and the others – too afraid of explaining herself, so she silently tells herself over and over to keep it together. The thought of how she maybe just ruined the best thing in her life and hurt the one person she loved more than anything almost makes her black out though – so she excuses herself as soon as they arrive at the restaurant and heads for the toilet where she almost collapses onto the bathroom-stall floor. 

Tears stream down her face when she replays what she did and said only moments before and she bumps her head against the wall repeatedly.  
“What did you do? What the fuck is wrong with you?”, she sobs into the palm of her hands – the hollow feeling in her chest arising, announcing the first panic attack she’s had for years now. It’s her own fault though – Jennie knows and therefore, she fears it even more. 

The buzz of her phone is distracting her momentarily – but when she opens up the message and reads, it hits her even harder. 

**Lisala <3: **  
_I’m gonna stay at Chaengs for a few days. Can you please take care of Leo? Thank you. We can talk when I’m back. I need some time to think._

Jennie’s pretty sure she’s not breathing anymore when she automatically finds the speed-dial button to call her emergency-contact.  
It only takes two rings for her to pick up and Jennie’s never in her life been happier to hear her voice. 

“It’s 2.30 at night Jen, this better be important or I swear to God…” 

All it takes one shaky sob for Jisoo to jump out of bed and start packing her suitcase.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what do you guys think? will Lisa forgive Jennie? 
> 
> let me know ;) 
> 
> xxx


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We can’t just call her.”, she says but Jisoo waves her off immediately. 
> 
> “That’s right. We can’t. But I can.”

**Chapter 13**

“Do you have her phone number?” 

Jisoo’s voice travels over to her and Jennie looks up from Leo who’s sleeping on top of her chest – softly purring away. 

“Who’s number?”, the younger girl asks and Jisoo only rolls her eyes at her. “Mother Theresa’s.”, she snorts. “No. Chaeyoung’s, of course.”

Jennie gets a little nervous, because she knows what’s about to come and she’s not sure she’s ready for that. 

“Mhm.”

“Good.”, Jisoo says and snaps her finger. “Tell me.”

Jennie raises an eyebrow and gulps. She knows Jisoo and her impulsive style of handling problems. She’s not really a fan – but right now she’s grateful for any kind of input on how to fix her mistake.  
Jisoo had already told her on the way back from the airport that Jennie was a complete moron and enumerated evidence – not really necessary though, because Jennie knew. She had known the second she had fucked up some days ago. And Lisa not picking up her phone and ignoring her up until now was enough for her to feel like a complete piece of shit.  
So her best friend telling her to her face was non-essential and still, maybe Jennie needed to hear it from someone else than herself. 

“We can’t just call her.”, she says but Jisoo waves her off immediately. 

“That’s right. We can’t. But I can.” 

“No.”, Jennie clarifies and shakes her head aggressively – which startles Leo who jumps up and looks at her with big eyes. She murmurs a sorry to him and scratches his ears softly. 

“Lisa said she needed space and I want to respect that.”

“And we will.”, Jisoo agrees. “I only want to talk to Chaeng.” 

Jennie bites her lip and contemplates. 

“Why?”, she asks after a moment of silence and stares at the other girl – trying to figure out her plan. Usually, Jennie knows Jisoo like the inside of her pockets but right now, she couldn’t pinpoint her motives. 

“Because she’s hot and single?”, Jisoo grins and Jennie only rolls her eyes.  
“You can’t take anything serious, huh? This isn’t like that time you’re third favorite fuckbuddy went M.I.A., Chichu. This is Lisa. I’m in love with her for real.”

She can feel the tears burn behind her eyes when she says those words and Jisoo is quick to sit down beside her on the couch – one arm draped behind Jennie’s shoulders. 

“I know. I’m sorry. Stupid joke.”, the darker-haired girl admits and sends her an apologetic smile. “What I meant was, I wanna talk to Chaeyoung to feel the pulse and maybe get her to convince Lisa to talk to you.” 

Jennie wants to laugh at how easy Jisoo thinks problems in a relationship are being solved, but the increasing pain in her chest stops her. She knows that Jisoo often operates from an impulse, but she also knows that most times, it somehow works out. She doesn’t know exactly how Jisoo does it – but when it comes to handling and solving things, she’s a mysterious mastermind.  
So Jennie doesn’t tell her off and only shrugs – at a loss of a better plan. 

“I don’t know, Chu…”, she trails off but one look from her friend is enough to silence her. So she reaches for her phone – careful not to disturb Leo again.  
She scrolls through her contacts and then hands it over to Jisoo once she found Chaeyoung’s contact information.

“Please don’t make it worse.”, she pleads almost in a whisper but Jisoo decides to pretend like she didn’t hear her. 

“It’s gonna be fine Jen.”, she only says and then gets up quickly – tipping away on her own mobile. “Excuse me. I’m going to make a call.” 

_____ 

Jisoo doesn’t emerge the bedroom for the next hour and Jennie starts to think that maybe she just fell asleep on the bed. She might still have jetlag for all she knows – but Jennie still doesn’t have the courage to check. 

Her thoughts drift off to Lisa ever so often and each time she’s close to crying because she feels completely helpless.  
Yes, she should have told Lisa that she wasn’t outed yet to her workmates and yes she should have told her the reason – Jennie knows that now. Jennie had always known that, but she just didn’t want Lisa to think that it had anything to do with her, because it didn’t. Jennie just wasn’t sure anymore that the other girl would believe her after everything that had happened.  
If the roles were reversed Jennie most likely would be pissed too – or confused at least, but something about Lisa’s silent treatment also triggered something inside the Korean that made her angry. She knew of course that she didn’t have any right to be mad. However, this always had been the way her father had treated her mother whenever there was something wrong in their marriage and Jennie despised it. Not talking never did anyone any good in her eyes, so she was a firm believer of ‘communication is key’ and experiencing how Lisa did the exact opposite was doing things to Jennie. Things she didn’t want to feel. Things she wasn’t okay with. 

“I’ve got good and bad news.”, a voice startles her and she’s both – happy and anxious when she looks up at Jisoo’s face expectantly. 

“Good news: Chaeyoung’s still single and she agreed to talk to Lisa and try to get her to talk to you. Bad news: she already tried that for the past two days without any luck. Apparently, your girlfriend is very stubborn and very hurt and those two are not a good combination.” 

Jisoo plops down beside Jennie on the couch again and cracks her knuckles. Jennie cringes – but not only at the weird sound Jisoo’s cartilage make.  
It’s not very promising news but Jennie sends her best friend a smile nonetheless. 

“Thank you anyway.”, she says defeated – yelling inwardly at herself when she realizes how she had gotten her hopes up. She always did that and it never worked out the way she imagined. It didn’t really help her anxiety. 

“Nothing’s lost yet Jendukie. Chaeyoung seemed… very determined. I wouldn’t be surprised if that girl is kicking Lisa’s ass this very moment.” 

“Yeah, right.”, Jennie snorts. “You just said it yourself... Lisa can be very stubborn.” 

Jisoo looks at her with a piercing look and shakes her head a little bit. “Jennie…”, her tone gets serious. “Lisa loves you. I know that from a certain source. She’s not gonna just let this be the end of it all because of one mistake. Maybe she just needs some more ti--.” 

Jisoo is being interrupted with a loud noise that makes them both go wide-eyed when they realize that it was Jennie’s phone. 

“I bet that’s her right there.”, the older one says and sends her friend a tight-lipped smile and once again, Jennie’s stunned at her friend’s skills of fixing things when she looks at her phone and Lisa’s name appears. 

**Lisala <3: **  
_let’s meet tonight? 7.30 at Hyde Park? please give Leo a kiss from me and say hi to Jisoo_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> get ready for the next chapter...
> 
> thanks for the love for this story. i love writing it and reading your comments :) 
> 
> xoxo


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa’s the first one to break the silence after they’ve sat down, and Jennie can already feel her pulse quicken again. She’s always been kinda afraid of these serious conversations because she’s witnessed first-hand time and time again how it only led to more problems. Her parents being the prime example. 
> 
> But Jennie realizes that they weren’t a copy of her mother and father the very second Lisa opens her mouth. Never had a talk between her parents started out with the words Lisa spoke to her right then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so.. here goes nothing. enjoy ;)

**Chapter 14**

Jennie prepares a whole speech. She carefully selects each and every word she wants to use in her sentences and even practices them on her short walk over to Hyde Park – determined not to forget anything she wants to say but as soon as her eyes land on Lisa sitting on a lone park bench, every thought in Jennie’s head vanishes until there’s only one word left she remembers. 

She stumbles forward – the tension and nervousness in her body almost making her fall over her own feet, but she catches herself just in time and wonders if Lisa feels as close to fainting as she is.  
She’s most likely on edge too, Jennie thinks when she spots her fiddling with the sleeves of her hoodie and her knees jumping up and down slightly.  
All Jennie wants to do right now is soothing her – changing the strained facial expression into a happy smile, but she knows that this isn’t going to be as easy as she hopes.  
Nonetheless Jennie more or less sprints up to where Lisa is sitting – the Thai girl getting up the second she spots her. 

Jennie feels out of breath once she’s face to face with Lisa and she’s not surprised that every fiber of her being yells at her to please wrap her arms around the other girl so she can feel her warmth. The skin on her hands start to tingle at the thought and Jennie realizes just how horrible not being able to touch Lisa for so long had been. 

Lisa on the other hand is looking at her expectantly – her eyes searching. Longing. And Jennie knows that Lisa is a sucker for eye-contact and that the very last time they’ve seen each other she refused to give her exactly that.  
So naturally – with the urgent need to make up for her mistake – Jennie doesn’t beat around the bush and stares right back at the girl in front of her. 

She doesn’t know what she expected, but the second their eyes meet, there’s a wave of relieve rushing through Jennie’s body which almost makes her choke. There’s really only one emotion she can read in Lisa’s eyes – and where Jennie maybe expected to find rejection, disappointment or hurt – she’s only met with love. 

Jennie opens her mouth slightly because she wants so desperately to say something – but she’s tongue tied and her feelings are way too overwhelming for her to be able to speak, so she just stands there with her mouth hanging open and her heart in her throat until Lisa steps right into her personal space and closes the gap between them.  
Her slender arms find their way around Jennie’s tiny body easily and she pulls the smaller girl right into her chest. 

It takes a second for her to realize what happened but then it all comes crashing down and Jennie’s crying into Lisa’s neck like she hadn’t used all her tears already those past few days.  
She knows she’s shaking and probably looks like the biggest mess – but to be fair, that’s how she felt, and she didn’t even mind that there were people glancing at them when they walked past them.  
All Jennie cared about was how Lisa’s hands were gripping her tighter and tighter – leaving absolutely no room between them anymore. 

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”, Jennie hears herself sob repeatedly and Lisa lets her apologize – probably needing to hear it too. 

They only break apart after the older girls crying dies down – Lisa swiftly kissing the side of Jennie’s head before she pulls away and looks at her intensely again.  
She sends Jennie a tight-lipped smile and gestures for them to sit down on the park bench, to which Jennie obliges easily. Her hands gripping Lisa’s – too afraid to let go completely just yet. 

Lisa’s the first one to break the silence after they’ve sat down, and Jennie can already feel her pulse quicken again. She’s always been kinda afraid of these serious conversations because she’s witnessed first-hand time and time again how it only led to more problems. Her parents being the prime example.  
But Jennie realizes that they weren’t a copy of her mother and father the very second Lisa opens her mouth. Never had a talk between her parents started out with the words Lisa spoke to her right then. 

“I missed you so much.”, Lisa states – her voice honest and firm, not leaving any room for doubts and Jennie literally feels the weight on her shoulders disappear. 

“I missed you too.”, she mumbles and sends the other girl a small smile which Lisa reciprocates before keeping on talking. 

“I know it wasn’t the best move to just leave and ignore you after what happened, but I was so confused Jen. And then confusion turned into hurt and anger and I really just needed some time to think.” 

Jennie nods, because well, she does understand Lisa – even though she doesn’t support that kind of behavior. She squeezes the hand she’s holding – reassuring Lisa to go on. 

“I know I shouldn’t have assumed that they know about it at work, but I did anyway, because I thought I know you and usually you’re such a strong and proud person, but… I guess I don’t really know you that well and it just somehow made me realize that there are things that got lost because everything happened so quickly between us.” 

She pauses to take a deep breath and Jennie’s anxiety increases at once. This is exactly what she feared. That Lisa would question their whole relationship because of this. 

“Please don’t…”, she merely whispers, but she knows Lisa heard her when she squints her eyes a little bit. 

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t question everything just because I didn’t tell you I wasn’t outed at work. It was wrong not telling you, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t know me, Lisa. It also doesn’t mean that I wasn’t one hundred percent honest with you about everything else. Because I was.”

“Then why didn’t you just tell me?”, Lisa asks – her voice a little sterner than before, making Jennie sight. 

“Because I wanted to prevent exactly what happened now. I didn’t want you to think any less of me – of our relationship.” 

Lisa opens her mouth to reply – but she closes it before any sound can leave her parted lips and Jennie squeezes her eyes shut. She lets her head fall forward into Lisa’s shoulder and gulps down the lump that’s starting to form in her throat. 

“Please believe me when I say that this has nothing to do with you, Lisa. I’m very proud to be with you and of the person I am now – but truth is that I came a long way. I more or less fled Korea because of that.” 

She pauses for a second – raising her head so their eyes could meet again. Lisa is only looking at her attentively, so Jennie continues. 

“Before I came to America, I worked at this small modeling company for some years while I was studying. I really liked the job and my work-mates there, but I was naïve and even though I knew how regressive Koreans are, I just told everybody about my sexual orientation. When my boss found out about it, I was immediately released without notice. In addition, he made sure that I never got to work for any other agency in Korea and as far as I experienced, he was successful with it. After that, I decided never to reveal any private details about myself at work ever again.” 

Lisa’s face is motionless, but Jennie can feel her thinking hard – a slight frown on her forehead appearing. 

“Wow…”, she mutters. “I’m really sorry. People can be very stupid.” 

Jennie laughs drily. 

“I still don’t get why you didn’t just tell me.”, Lisa says as a matter of fact and Jennie gulps again. Of course Lisa wouldn’t just let it go. She was stubborn like that and Jennie loved her for it most of the times. 

“Because I am embarrassed. I don’t want you to think I’m a wimp who runs from my problems and even moves countries because of some minor unpleasantness.”

At this Lisa almost jumps up – only being held back by Jennie’s grip on her hands. 

“Jennie….”, Lisa’s voice is serious and so is the expression of her face. “Never ever think that there’s something wrong with you or the way you handle things. And don’t you dare blame yourself for the things that happened to you back then – because that’s complete bullshit. Those weren’t minor unpleasantness’s – that was blackmailing and one hundred percent illegal of them, so you leaving the country was probably the smartest and most badass thing ever.”

She takes a deep breath before moving her right hand up to Jennie’s face – softly stroking her cheek. 

“But please… You never have to be embarrassed to tell me something. No matter what. Nothing will ever make me like you any less – as long as you’re being honest with me. Deal?”

Jennie can’t help but let a bright smile creep on her face at Lisa’s words and nods. 

“Can I throw something into the pact-pot as well, before we approve of it?” 

Lisa only grins at her. “Well obviously, that’s only fair.” 

“Can we arrange to talk about problems and not ignore each other? I’m not good with silent treatment. I almost died.”, Jennie confesses and Lisa’s quick to urge forward and pepper her cheek with kisses at which the shorter girl almost lets a moan slip. God how she missed Lisa’s lips. It’s ridiculous. 

“We can and we will.”, Lisa agrees – regret visible in her eyes. “I’m sorry I did that. I will learn to be better at dealing with problems in the future.” 

Jennie holds out her hand – offering Lisa her pinky. “You gotta. We have a holy contract here.” 

Lisa smiles and links her own pinky with Jennie’s. “We sure do, love.”

They look at each other for another second before Lisa pulls at the other girl’s hand until she’s able to put it around her neck – their heads moving closer in the action. 

“Can we finally kiss now?”, the Thai girl mumbles – her eyes already closing in anticipation. 

“You’re the one who’s still talking…” 

“No, now it’s you. Oh and now it’s me again…” 

“Yah! Lisa!”

“Okay okay, geez.. so greedy.”

There’s a little smack at the back of a head and then there’s silence – both of them finally giving into the long-needed make-up-kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that wasn't so bad after all now - was it?  
> are you guys still alive? i sure hope so ;) 
> 
> tell me what you think - maybe, maybe not. 
> 
> xoxo


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “So, can I ask you a favor?”
> 
> Jisoo gives her a look that tells Jennie that she’s listening, but that her answer is most likely negative. 
> 
> “Depends.”, she grins and reaches for her Old Fashioned and takes a sip – eyeing her best friend curiously as Jennie shakes her head a little. 
> 
> “Can you please not be a pain in my ass tonight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's not really fluff but I hope you enjoy anyway ;)

**Chapter 15**

“So, can I ask you a favor?”

Jisoo gives her a look that tells Jennie that she’s listening, but that her answer is most likely negative. 

“Depends.”, she grins and reaches for her Old Fashioned and takes a sip – eyeing her best friend curiously as Jennie shakes her head a little. 

“Can you please not be a pain in my ass tonight.” 

Jisoo tears open her mouth in a fake shock and puts her hand on her chest. 

“Ouch, bitch. Way to tell me that you love me.”

Jennie snorts and glares at the girl sitting in front of her – slowly stirring her own drink with a pink straw. 

“You know what I mean. Maybe don’t kill Lisa within the first ten minutes and please leave the flirting with Chaeng at a minimum.” 

“Hah!”, the older one spits out and laughs. “I can promise you neither of that, I’m afraid, Jendukie. You see, first of all, it’s my duty as your best friend to have a talk with your girlfriend about the way she made you feel like shit and second… I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I never flirt. People flirt with me and I react. It’s basic manners, lady.” 

Jennie rolls her eyes at the last comment because Jisoo’s the biggest flirt on the face of the planet and everybody knows that – Jisoo especially. 

“I mean it, Chichu. Don’t make me regret bringing you.” 

“So little faith.”

“You literally just told me that you… Oh, they’re here.” 

Jennie’s sight travels to something behind the other girls back and before Jisoo can even turn around, there are two more people at their table. 

“Hey guys.”

Lisa’s the first one to speak – moving to stand beside Jennie and quickly bending down to place a kiss on the smaller girl’s mouth and then straightening up – meeting Jisoo’s intensive glare. 

“So nice to finally meet you in person, Jisoo.”, the Thai girl smiles, as she takes a step and without warning embraces Jennie’s friend. 

“Oh God, you’re a hugger.”, Jisoo mumbles and Jennie kicks her under the table, mouthing ‘be nice’ to her behind Lisa’s back. 

“I sure am. Better get used to it.”, Lisa retorts after she draws back and sends the older girl a wink. Jennie grins and shares a look with Chaeyoung who’s still standing behind Lisa – knowing very well how both her best friend and her girlfriend actually liked this kind of sarcastic-banter. 

“Jisoo, meet Chaeyoung. Chaeng, meet Jennie’s best friend Jisoo.”, Lisa introduces them – slightly confused when the two of them grin at each other and the blonde girl says: “Yeah, we actually kinda know each other already.” 

“If that’s not the truth.”, Jisoo coos. “You’re even more beautiful in person, dear.” 

Chaeyoung smirks and shakes her head slightly while Jennie huffs – so much for ‘I don’t flirt’ – and Lisa’s at a complete loss. 

“Wait what? Did I miss something?”, she asks – casting a look at Jennie who just rolls her eyes again. “They met over facetime when we went to pick up Leo and I was on the phone with Chu.”, she explains quickly and watches as the frown on Lisa’s face turns into a stunned expression. 

“Ah, I see.”

“And then we also talked on the phone yesterday when we had to make sure that you little shit got your act together.”, Jisoo adds and earns herself another kick to her shin from Jennie. 

“I beg your pardon?”, Lisa gags – her eyes moving from Jisoo to Jennie to Chaeyoung and back. 

“You heard me.”, the older Korean says and gestures for Chaeyoung to sit on the barstool beside her – the blonde girl following her request silently.

“We just tried to figure out a way to get you to talk to Jennie.”, Lisa’s best friend explains and bites her lower lip. “And since everything worked out perfectly, I think we can drop this topic of conversation now.”

“I agree with that.”, Jennie perks in – sending another glare Jisoo’s way and reaching over to take Lisa’s hand. The taller girl still looks a little puzzled but when she feels Jennie’s hands on her, she visibly relaxes and leans into the other girl a bit. 

“Wussies.”, Jisoo snorts and then quickly turns her attention towards the girl sitting beside her. “Sooo… Chaeyoung. A little birdy told me you’re still running solo.” 

“I told you that myself.”, the girl in questions says and rises her eyebrows – the grin on her face never disappearing though. 

“Correction then.”, Jisoo replies. “A little, very cute birdy.” 

“Oh, for fucks sake...”, Jennie mutters. She catches the cross look her best friend sends her and rolls her eyes – actually fearing that they might get stuck at the back of her head soon.  
Meanwhile, Chaeyoung only laughs and then swiftly grabs Jisoo’s drink – downing a huge sip before putting it back down.  
Jisoo follows her every move with dark eyes – an impressed look on her face. 

“Mhm. Wouldn’t have pictured you as an Old-Fashioned kind of girl.”

“I’m not.”, Chaeng answers as she grimaces at the taste in her mouth and earns herself a laugh from the other three girls. “It tastes awful. I’m into sweeter things.”

“I can do sweet.”, Jisoo smirks and gets off her chair in a graceful hop. “Let’s go get you something sweet. At the bar.”

Chaeyoung shrugs and locks eyes with Lisa for a short second, who just nods at her. 

“You want something too, Manoban?”, the dark-haired Korean asks with a sudden touch of politeness - catching Lisa off guard. 

“Uh, sure. I’ll have a Gin Tonic, thank you.”

“A Gin-gal. Okay. I can work with that.” Jisoo sends Lisa a wink before her attention is back on the blonde girl – eyeing her up and down shamelessly as she now stands beside her only in a black cocktail-dress.

“Come on, beautiful. Let’s get drunk and celebrate our success.” 

“You had me at drunk.”, Chaeyoung says – a small smile tugging at her lips as she follows Jisoo into the crowd of people that had gathered in the small bar since their arrival. 

“Okay, what the hell was that?”, Lisa asks once the two girls had disappeared – her sight moving to Jennie who just shrugs. 

“I literally told her to tone down her flirting right before you guys got here. Glad to see how she takes me seriously.”

Lisa lets slip a laugh and moves to hug the smaller girl from behind. 

“Don’t be mad, babe. For all I know, I think Chaeng actually somehow seems to enjoy Jisoo’s playfulness.” 

“I guess…”, Jennie retorts – slowly moving her head so she can see half of Lisa’s face. “I’m sorry about her, by the way. She has this very heavy obsession with protecting me…” 

“Please, I’m so glad you have a friend like her. She came all the way from Korea for you. I can deal with a little tough love.” 

She sends her a wink and kisses Jennie’s cheek – lingering a moment before pulling away. “I probably deserve it anyway, so…” 

“No you don’t. But I’m still glad you understand.” 

“Sure thing, babe.”

“Soooo… since we made up and all.”, Jennie starts – feeling shy all of a sudden which was really stupid because this was Lisa and Jennie already knew the answer to the question spooking in her head. 

“Are you gonna come back home?”

Lisa’s face lights up and she kisses Jennie’s cheeks once more. 

“Do you want me to?”

The Korean girl smacks the arm that’s draped around her waist softly. 

“Of course I do, silly.” 

“Then I’m glad to. But what about Jisoo? She okay with sleeping on the couch?” 

Jennie shrugs and then casts an eye over to the bar, where she can make out her best friend with one hand caressing Chaeyoung’s arm and the other downing a shot of liquor.

“I have a gut-feeling that that’s not even gonna be necessary.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for a long time I wasn't sure if I should throw Chaesoo into the story for real but oh well... I guess I'm gonna. 
> 
> Or am I not... ? ;) 
> 
> xoxo


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She’s actually kinda adorable when she sleeps.”, Chaeyoung mumbles – her eyes on Lisa first and then on Jennie’s who can only nod in agreement. 
> 
> “Yeah… when she sleeps that is.”, Jisoo retorts and then laughs when she catches her best friends stern look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> little short but I hope you enjoy anyway..

**Chapter 16**

Jennie has absolutely zero recollection of how the four of them ended up in the bathroom of apartment 34. 

She only vaguely remembers her and Lisa joining Jisoo and Chaeyoung at the bar – her best friend ordering round after round of shots for them and Jennie quickly learned that her girlfriend was even the bigger lightweight than she was herself.  
Jisoo had laughed at them like it was the most hilarious thing on earth – sentences like “God you’re so meant to be. You both can’t handle liquor if your life depended on it.” and “I can’t believe there’s actually a person on this planet that is worse with alcohol than Jen.”.  
Somewhere along the line Chaeyoung had joined in with her teasing – even though she wasn’t sober herself at all. Lisa had waved them off every time – searching comfort by keeping incredibly close to Jennie – the booze making her clingy and Jennie loved it. Like really fucking loved it. How Lisa’s hands were all over her all the time and how she told her how much she loved her every time their eyes met. It had been endearing and Jennie had felt at the top of the world with this girl at her side. 

When all of them couldn’t really keep themselves in upright positions anymore – Lisa slipping off the barstool more than once, almost hitting her head – Jisoo found that it was time to call a cab.  
And where Jennie has no idea how they got into the yellow vehicle – she slightly remembers Lisa’s best friend singing off key the whole drive back to their apartment and Jisoo telling her over and over again that her voice remembered her of roses and funnily enough, Jennie had agreed with that. 

Somehow, they all safely reached her and Lisa’s flat – the light of the morning sun already peeking through the curtains of their living room and Jennie didn’t know when the last time was, she got home this late. Or early. However one put it. But she remembers thinking how that night had been one of the best one’s of her life so far. Her cheeks hurting from all the smiling were proof enough. 

Right now, however – with her legs spread out on the bathroom slab floor and Lisa’s head in her lap, Jennie can’t for the life of her figure out why they are in here.  
There’s no one hanging over the toilet who needs assistance – on the contrary – Jisoo is sitting in the bathtub while Chaeyoung is sitting in her lap – her legs hanging over the rim.  
There’s a soft snore coming from Lisa and Jennie has to suppress a laugh, because she looks so damn cute like this – no matter that her eye-makeup is smeared, and her mouth is hanging open. 

She can hear their blonde friend hum softly at the way Jisoo is caressing her back – and for a second Jennie wonders when her best friend became such a softie. Probably somewhere between their fifth shot of Tequilla and Chaeyoung dragging Jisoo onto the dancefloor. 

“She’s actually kinda adorable when she sleeps.”, Chaeyoung mumbles – her eyes on Lisa first and then on Jennie’s who can only nod in agreement. 

“Yeah… when she sleeps that is.”, Jisoo retorts and then laughs when she catches her best friends stern look. 

“You know what Chu? You don’t fool me. I know that you like her.” Jennie’s voice is nothing above a whisper but it’s loud enough for the others to hear anyway. 

There’s a moment of silence in which Chaeyoung sends Jisoo a glance and then she nudges her at which Jisoo sights and shrugs – eyes locked with the blonde girl the whole time. 

“Whatever.”, the older Korean mumbles and earns herself a smile from her new friend. “Guess she’s kinda okay. Don’t tell her I said that, though. Imma kill you both.”

Jennie grins and watches as Chaeyoung sinks a little further into Jisoo – a smirk plastered on her face. 

“Proud of you, unnie. I know that was hard for you to admit.” 

Jennie almost wants to comment on the fact that she just called Jisoo old, but before she can, Jisoo wiggles herself out from under the taller girl and tickles her side. 

“Who are you calling unnie, huh? Watch your filthy mouth, Chaengchaeng.” 

“If someone here has a filthy mouth it’s you, Miss ‘if I told you what I want to do to you right now, you’d slap me in the face’.” 

Jisoo’s eyes go big and Jennie giggles at her shocked expression. 

“Busted.”, she grins and dodges her best friend’s hand who reaches out to grab her, or slap her, or whatever it is Jisoo wanted to do. 

“Well, it’s really not my fault that you’re so fucking hot. So, sorry not sorry about that.”, the addressed girl shrugs – her hands still on Chaeyoungs hips, making no effort to remove them. 

“Ugh. You’re lucky you’re kinda cute…”, the blonde girl says and shakes her head slightly while tapping Jisoo’s nose. Said one makes a grimace and then winks at her. 

“You think I’m cute?”

“I said kinda.”

“Still. You like me.” 

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” 

“I have no idea what you mean, but since we’re talking about it. What’s the size of your ring finger?” 

Jisoo reaches for Chaeyoungs hand and begins comparing her finger to the other girl’s. It takes a moment for the blonde to realize what’s going on – but then she snatches away her hand and flicks Jisoo who only laughs loudly. 

“You’re so weird.”, Lisa’s best friend mumbles. Still, Jennie observes, she’s not moving out of Jisoo’s half-embrace – too content at their closeness it seems. 

Jennie shuts her eyes for a moment and barely noticeable shakes her head at the two of them. She has no idea where this road might lead them, but she recalls the way Jisoo had looked at the blonde girl when she’d thought that no one noticed. Jennie had never before seen such a spark in her best friends’ eyes and she immediately knew that this meant something. Whatever that was. 

She absent-mindedly lets her hand run through Lisa’s hair – the younger girl still sound asleep on top of her tights and savors this moment, anchoring it in her memory forever. 

She doesn’t know how much time passes exactly – but somewhere between Chaeyoung leaning back into Jisoo and Lisa curling up closer to Jennie’s body – she falls into a deep and content sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter's in the pipeline already and boy... you're not ready for it...


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I’m never drinking again in my life.” 
> 
> Lisa lets her head drop into her hands for support and closes her eyes – the bright sunlight increasing her headache. 
> 
> “You’re such a whimp.”, Jisoo snorts from her seat opposite of the Thai girl while she pours herself another cup of coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> enjoy. 
> 
> thanks for 6'000 hits. warms my heart. for real. thank you for the love.

**Chapter 17**

“I’m never drinking again in my life.” 

Lisa lets her head drop into her hands for support and closes her eyes – the bright sunlight increasing her headache. 

“You’re such a whimp.”, Jisoo snorts from her seat opposite of the Thai girl while she pours herself another cup of coffee. She’s the only one who looks not-dead at the table and for Jennie’s liking, she enjoys that fact far too much. 

“I would slap you, but I’m too hungover to move.”, Lisa replies – not even opening her eyes while speaking. Her head is still supported by her hands in order for her not to fall face first into her breakfast plate.  
Jennie pushes a glass of water over the table until it hits Lisa’s elbow, making the Thai girl open one eye. 

“Drink up.”, Jennie commands and pours herself a glass.  
“I’m really not thirsty at all.”, Lisa complains but quickly surrenders when she’s met with a very stern look from the cat-eyed girl – downing the water in a few big gulps. 

“Whipped.”, Jisoo comments and leans back in her chair – casting a short look over at Chaeyoung who’s silently picking at her food. It didn’t slip Jennie’s attention that the two of them hadn’t really spoken much today – and even less with each other. She hadn’t wanted to intrude but still, it confused her a little, especially after finding the two girls all snuggled up on their couch that morning. 

She decides to ask Jisoo about it later – redirecting her attention back to Lisa who looks like she might fall asleep any second, so Jennie softly nudges her shoulder. 

“I’m sorry.”, Lisa immediately mumbles and sends her a smile that – even though it’s small – makes Jennie’s heart skip a beat. She doesn’t even care that she can feel her best friend roll her eyes when she leans forward and kisses her girlfriend’s cheek. 

“Maybe we should order Lili a Bloody Mary.”, the oldest one at the table throws in – earning a groan from Lisa in return. 

“Please stop talking about alcohol. It makes me wanna puke on you.”, she says and looks up to find Jisoo grinning at her. 

“Don’t blame me. It’s not my fault you can’t handle your liquor Lili.”

“And please stop calling me that. Only Jennie’s allowed to give me pet names.”

Jisoo takes a sharp intake of air and holds up her hands in front of herself defensively. “Ouch, way to hurt my feelings, Manoban. After our talk yesterday I thought we got close, but I guess not then…” 

Lisa shakes her head and gestures for Jisoo to stop talking – but Jennie’s too attentive for her own good. 

“What talk?”, she asks – her puzzled eyes moving from one girl to the other and back. 

“Nothing.”, Lisa answers a little bit too quickly – making Jennie even more interested in the topic. She raises an eyebrow and cocks her head slightly, making sure to both of them that she expected an explanation right away. 

Her best friend only grins and points at the Thai girl who somehow looks rather flustered. 

“I’ll leave this one for Lisa to answer.”, Jisoo grins and parries the napkin that gets thrown at her from the other side of the table. 

When the Thai girl meets Jennie’s intense look, she sights and bites her lower lip and adverts her gaze – looking into the Korean’s dark orbs. 

“It’s nothing, really… We were just… talking. Yesterday. When Chaeng and you went to the bathroom – which took forever by the way – Jisoo and I had a conversation.”

“About what?”, Jennie asks further – her eyes moving to give her best friend a pointed look as well. Jisoo only lifts her shoulders and her eyebrows and stays silent. 

“About you. And me. Mainly.”, Lisa recounts. “It really was only a short talk and I was… you know… a little drunk and stuff…”

“A little my ass.”, Jisoo perks in and laughs. “You kept repeating yourself every other second, chewing off my ears, dear friend.”

Lisa hides her face behind her hands at that and slightly leans over to rest her head on Jennie’s shoulder. The younger Korean still somewhat bewildered automatically moves her own head to put a short peck on top of Lisa’s. 

“Well, it was you that boosted my alcohol consumption by buying all those shots, so technically it’s your own fault.”, Lisa clarifies and sends Jisoo a smirk. The older one sticking out her tongue in need of a better return and Jennie has to stifle a giggle bubbling up in her throat. 

“Touché.”, Jisoo grimaces. “Anyway. Your girl here wasted like 30 minutes of my precious life to tell me how perfect you are.”

She rolls her eyes and stares back at the both of them while Jennie can’t help but coo a little at this revelation. 

“Aw babe. That’s so cute of you.” 

“And there goes the last bit of my cool badass reputation.”, Lisa grumbles. “Thanks a lot, Jisoo.” 

“Anytime, badass.”, Jisoo retorts and sends Jennie a meaningful glance. “Hate to break it to you, Jen, but your girl is a wimp.” 

“Like I care.”, Jennie snorts and intertwines her hand with Lisa’s – gently squeezing it. “As long as she’s a wimp for me, that’s more than okay.” 

“God. You’re just as bad as she is.”, the raven-haired Korean says as she shakes her head. “Can’t believe you’re my best friend.” 

“You know Chu, you always act like you’re too tough and all – but I see right through you.”, Lisa claims after lifting Jennie’s hand to her mouth to place a kiss there. “You actually really like nice and sweet people. That’s why you’re friends with Jennie, and it’s also the reason you like me and Chaeng.”

“Correction.”, Jisoo answers fast, like shot from a pistol. “I tolerate you.” 

“Okay enough you two.”, Jennie laughs – her eyes sparkling with joy. “Absolutely everyone at this table knows that you adore each other, so quit pretending that you don’t. It’s getting lame. Right, Chaeyoung?”

The blonde girl’s head jerks up when she realizes that she’s been addressed, and she looks over at Jennie surprised. 

“Sorry, what?”, she asks – which earns her a pointed look from her best friend. 

“What’s up with you today?”, Lisa questions – sitting up and straightening her back. “You haven’t said anything since we left for breakfast. You okay?” 

Jennie feels how Lisa’s grip on her hand tightens when Chaeyoung doesn’t immediately answer and she tilts her head slightly to look over at Jisoo’s reaction. But there’s none. Her face is calm and composed – but she doesn’t twist her head to follow the conversation from Lisa to Chaeyoung. Her eyes are fixed on the untouched Croissant on her plate. 

“Just tired.”, the tall girl murmurs in an attempt to reassure Lisa, but due to Lisa’s stubbornness, she doesn’t let it go that easily. 

“Bullshit.”, the Thai girl says and her eyes move downwards to Chaeyoung’s plate. “You haven’t touched your food and we both know that no matter how hungover or tired you are – you never ever say no to food. Sooo… what’s bothering you?”

Lisa’s question isn’t being answered and Jennie thinks that maybe she lets it slip nonetheless now – but then she watches how Lisa’s eyes move over to Jisoo and widen a bit. 

“Did something happen?”

Her eyes move from the raven to the blonde and back - both of the other girls looking into opposite directions. 

“Did you…. Oh my fuck, if you took advantage of her vulnerability, I swear to God…”

“What the hell?”, Jisoo spits and tenses up – almost on the edge of her chair and Jennie’s quick to place a firm hand on top of Lisa’s shoulder before sending her best friend a warning sign with her eyes. 

“Stop, stop, stop. Both of you calm down, okay?”

She reaches up to place a finger on her girlfriend’s chin and turn her head, so she looks at her. Lisa’s eyes are flickering, and her breathing is a little more erratic than usual but still her face is somewhat soft. 

“Babe, accusations aren’t the way to go, I think. Why don’t we all take a breath and then maybe let Chaeyoung herself explain. After all, this is about her, isn’t it?” 

Jennie’s words hit hard and both, Lisa and Jisoo, relax – Lisa swallowing empty, mumbling a soft ‘sorry’ at Jisoo who only replies with a glare. 

They only realize that Lisa’s best friend had gotten up from her seat when they all look at her again. There’s something in Chaeyoung’s gaze that makes Jennie cringe a little bit. The blonde’s eyes are fixed on Lisa who seems at a complete loss - and honestly, so is Jennie. 

“This has nothing to do with Jisoo.”, Chaeyoung explains and her voice is far too calm for this whole situation, Jennie thinks. Still, she sees how the blonde is biting her lip before speaking further. 

“It’s about a text I got this morning. It was from Ava.”

“That bitch.”, Lisa mumbles under her breath. “What she want?”

Chaeyoung swallows hard and opens her mouth – only to close it again a mere second later, obviously not knowing how to form her next sentences. Jennie feels the confusion radiating from Lisa and Jisoo and it takes her off guard that her gut feeling is telling her to brace herself. She always had a flair for knowing when certain things were about to happen and this was a moment like that. So Jennie’s eyes automatically move to watch Lisa’s face, when Chaeyoung continues. 

“She wrote that she owed it to me to be one hundred percent honest about her cheating and that she wanted me to know who it was.” 

Lisa’s eyes narrow and she makes a gesture with her hands to urge her to move on. 

“It’s Minnie.”, the blonde girl says and that’s when Lisa’s entire attitude changes. Her face tightens and her composure disappears at once. Her nostrils quiver and her jaw drops a little – a certain glint in her eyes that Jennie’s never seen before. She gives a half-nod and that’s when the Korean knows that she doesn’t even have to ask who Minnie is. Or was. 

“What a coincidence.”, Lisa spits out and looks up at Chaeyoung who’s still awkwardly standing there – also rather unhappy. Lisa squints her eyes. 

“That’s not all there is to it though, am I right?”, she asks and Jennie’s not the only one who realizes that her voice sounds rather harsh. Jisoo noticeably becomes tense as she watches the side of the blonde’s head – her forehead wrinkling. 

“No.”, Chaeyoung gulps – her eyes on Jennie for a short moment, an apologetic look on her face. “She also told me that they were hooking up for over a year now. Since last spring to be exact.”

There’s a moment of silence in which no one at the table seems to be brave enough to breathe – not even Jisoo daring to try to lighten the mood with a stupid joke – and then Lisa’s also standing up, her eyes closed. 

“Okay.”, she says and nods to herself a few times. “So let me get this straight. My ex-girlfriend, whom I dated for 5 years, was secretly screwing your ex-girlfriend for the better of 6 months while we were still together and, in the meantime, I was making plans to get engaged.” 

Chaeyoung takes a deep breath and then nods – looking as dejected as Jennie felt in this moment. This was not good. This was everything but good. 

“Cool.”, is all Lisa says – her eyes empty now as she looks right through Chaeyoung. “Will you excuse me, I need to… I just need to… get out of here.” 

She turns to leave but pivots back – her sight on her best friend. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

Chaeyoung tries to smile, but fails miserably as she steadies herself by holding onto the back of her chair. 

“Yeah, I know that, Li. Me neither.” 

Lisa nods once more and then casts a look down at where Jennie’s sitting motionless – her eyes on her girlfriends. She’s on the verge of screaming out of frustration because, fuck, they just got their shit together after their first real fight and Jennie can’t stand the thought of something like that happening again. So soon. At all. Whatever. 

She was also kinda confused – Lisa’s short summary before only helping somewhat – and she only hoped that Lisa would think about their pinky-promise to each other, even though she understood that after this revelation Lisa wanted to be alone. 

So, Jennie’s really the first one to be taken by surprise when Lisa holds out her hand, an expecting look on her face. 

“Will you join me, please?”, she mumbles, and the Korean is quick to take her hand – Lisa pulling her up in a swift move. 

“Are you sure?”, Jennie asks, but Lisa is already nodding her head. There are really not much words needed between them, because Jennie’s able to read everything she needs to know in the way Lisa’s fingers fit in between hers and the way the skin burns up where they’re touching. 

“Yes. I need you right now. And I want to tell you about Minnie.”

“Okay. Yeah, I mean.... Sure.”

Jennie glances over at Jisoo and Chaeyoung who both only nod at her. 

“Go on.”, Jisoo says and looks up at the blonde girl beside her. “I’ll stay here with my favorite girl and try to cheer her up.”

Jennie hears Lisa's 'thank you' and then feels how she's being pulled into the direction of the exit - her stomach hurting a little at the prospect of what's about to come but then she also hears her heart whisper that everything will be okay as long as they're together and she's never been more happy about the fact that Lisa wants her by her side. Even in difficult times. Especially then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'what about the fluff, author?', you might ask. 
> 
> hang in there!! we'll get there, guys. have faith ;D 
> 
> hope you liked this one. 
> 
> trouble in paradise, again? shoot. we'll see how that one turns out.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know… there’s something else I probably should’ve told you sooner.” 
> 
> Jennie squints her eyes and raises one eyebrow.

**Chapter 18**

It’s still chilly outside even though the sun is shining down on them – but it’s windy in New York today and Jennie’s glad that she brought a scarf. She pulls it tightly around her neck and stuffs her bare hands inside the pockets of her coat. 

Lisa is walking silently beside her. They have been walking side by side in silence for the better of ten minutes now and Jennie starts to wonder if her girlfriend will even begin to speak without her asking her to.  
Jennie’s not ignorant though – she knows that the news she received were troubling and hard to swallow, so she lets Lisa be lost in her thoughts as long as she needs to. Meanwhile, Jennie herself has some time to think on her own – but she really doesn’t want to draw wrong conclusions. She realizes that it’s kinda hard not to, after finding out some snippets about Lisa’s past relationship. It’s funny, Jennie thinks. They never really came around to talk about that topic and Jennie just assumed that there’s not really much to talk about then – but, oh boy, had she been wrong.  
Jennie knows, of course, that she had no right to feel this way – but knowing that Lisa had been close to getting married to someone else made her stomach twist and turn in an unpleasant way and she tries to ignore the unsettling feeling but it was easier said than done. 

When Lisa slows down her pace, Jennie follows her suit until they come to a halt and the smaller girl meets the Thai’s gaze. Lisa sends her a little smile that’s supposed to reassure her – it doesn’t quite do the trick since Jennie realizes that it’s kinda forced.  
So Jennie takes her chance and takes a step forward – invading Lisa’s space and reaching up to cup her cheeks with her cold hands. Their eyes lock and Lisa closes her eyes – savoring Jennie’s warmth. 

“It’s okay that you’re upset, you know.”, Jennie merely whispers. Her words are honest and she knows that Lisa knows that because she moves her head to press her cheek harder into Jennie’s touch. 

Her voice is a little shaky when she finally speaks, the first words leaving her mouth being ‘I’m so sorry, Jen.’.  
  
“Don’t apologize.”, Jennie counters quickly. “It’s not your fault this happened.” 

Lisa nods and sights heavy. “I know. Still… I should’ve told you about Minnie, but… I guess I was just caught up in this newfound happiness and… probably too afraid that you might run away.” 

“Why would I ever run away from you?”, Jennie asks – but it’s more a rhetorical question anyway, so she doesn’t wait for an answer. “Please believe me when I say that there’s nothing you can do or say that will make me unlove you. Especially when it’s something that happened in the past. We all have one and we all did things that we would do differently a second time around.” 

“I know. It’s just…”, Lisa starts and swallows hard, before her eyes meet Jennie’s dark orbs again. “I don’t want you to think that I’m still hung up on her or anything.” 

Jennie tilts her head a little – her eyes still looking into Lisa’s as she removes one hand from her face and puts it on top of the other girl’s chest. She can immediately feel Lisa’s frantic heartbeat even through the many layers of clothing she’s wearing. It’s kinda soothing to her – this evidence of Lisa being so very alive. 

“If you tell me that you aren’t, then I trust you, Lisa.”, Jennie says in a firm voice. 

Lisa visibly relaxes at that – a fleeting smile crossing her face. “Good.”, she mumbles and turns her head to kiss the inside of Jennie’s hand that’s still on her left cheek. “That’s good.” 

“So…”, Jennie starts for her as they both slowly start walking again because well, it’s awkward just standing there in the middle of the High Line and there’s really not many unoccupied benches around. 

“You almost got married to her?” 

Lisa sights once more – a clear sign that that memory wasn’t a great one, which wasn’t all that surprising. 

“Not really. I mean… yeah at a time I was planning to ask her, but I never got around doing it in the first place, so.” 

Jennie casts a slightly confused look at the taller girl which urges Lisa to go on. 

“In the last two years of our relationship things were already a little rocky, to put it gently. We mostly fought and looking back I guess we both weren’t happy anymore. I tried to fix the broken parts several times but she just kept slipping away from me. So, as a last resort, I naively thought that marrying her was the way to save our love. But the more I thought about it for real, the more I noticed that I really couldn’t imagine spending my life with her. The two of us - we just didn’t work anymore. Apparently, she had moved on a long time before we split up.” 

Lisa clears her throat and stops to lean back against the handrail – her hand reaching out to grasp Jennie’s sleeve and pull her towards herself. 

“You know… there’s something else I probably should’ve told you sooner.” 

Jennie squints her eyes and raises one eyebrow. 

“There was this incident that really made all the difference in my decision making.” 

Lisa looks away – her sight somewhat distant, lost in thought. 

“When I was really struggling with my feelings and everything, there was this moment. It was only a few seconds, but it made me realize that I wanted more out of life than just a relationship that was mediocre at best.” 

Jennie moves in between Lisa’s legs a little bit – her hands finding their way down to her girlfriends’ waist. 

“What moment? What happened?”, she wants to know – absolutely intrigued by Lisa’s story. 

There’s a smile appearing on the Thai girl’s face and she bites her lower lip in a nervous manner – making Jennie a tad anxious. 

“It was about a year and a half ago, I guess. Minnie and I were on our way to the groceries when we kinda ran into a girl in our building’s lobby. I didn’t even talk to her or anything – I just saw her standing there, talking to our landlord, but… I can’t even explain it. It just hit me. I remember thinking that she was the most beautiful person I had ever seen and it made my heart do somersaults for some reason. After that I couldn’t stop thinking about her the whole day, and the day after that, actually I never really ever stopped thinking about her you see. That’s when I knew for sure that Minnie wasn’t the one for me – because how could it be that a stranger could make me feel all these things that she couldn’t? And I just somehow knew exactly what to do. What I wanted.” 

Jennie only realizes that her mouth is hanging open when Lisa grins and pushes it close with her index finger. 

“Wow.”, she whispers and gulps. “That’s… kinda romantic. Did you ever meet that girl again?” 

Lisa laughs and her smile is so wide that Jennie’s surprised it still fits her face. 

“What do you think?”, Lisa asks and pulls Jennie closer towards her. 

“Uhm… I don’t know. I don’t think so?” 

Lisa licks her lips that are still forming a smile – now more a smirk though. 

“Jennie…”, she starts and a giggle escapes her mouth. “Where were you a year and a half ago?” 

“I… me? I don’t know… At home? I guess… I don’t know… why? What are you…”, she stutters – at a complete loss until Lisa nudges her nose at gives her a look that tells her more than any conversation ever in her life – and then she suddenly loses all the oxygen in her lungs and her eyes almost fall out of their sockets. 

“Oh my God.”, Jennie stammers and Lisa only laughs again. “I was in New York to look at some apartments before my move.”

She looks up at Lisa once again – not trusting herself and looking for reassurance once more. 

“The girl was you.”, Lisa says – her voice so clear that it almost hurts Jennie’s ears. “The girl is you. You see, you’re it for me, Jennie Kim. And you have been for longer than you knew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prepare yourself for fluff next chapter ;) 
> 
> hope you enjoyed this one <3


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You don’t have to do this, you know.”, Chaeyoung’s voice cuts through the silence between them and pulls Jisoo out of her thoughts.  
> She looks up into soft eyes and knows immediately what the blonde girl means. 
> 
> “I know. I want to though.”, the Korean returns – a small smile showing up on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this one is a little different than planned - bc you get a chaesoo-insight. 
> 
> jen & lisa will be back next chapter tho, I promise ;)

**Chapter 19**

Central Park was pretty crowded due to the sunny weather that day. There were people lounging in the meadows, kids playing soccer and families on bike rides. Everyone appeared rather happy – except for the blonde girl walking silently beside Jisoo. 

After Lisa and Jennie had left the restaurant, Chaeyoung had become even quieter than she already had been and Jisoo didn’t have the heart to make some stupid joke – even though she wanted nothing more than to lighten the mood and maybe, just maybe, make her smile again.  
But even Jisoo knew that that wasn’t appropriate in the current situation, so she just kept her mouth shut – hoping that the other girl could still feel her support somewhat through her presence. 

It was strange to her. Besides Jennie, the raven haired girl knew many people – but none of them she would consider her friends. They were acquaintances and even though Jisoo liked hanging out with them, she would never talk about serious topics with them - telling them her secrets or dreams. That part had always been reserved for only Jennie and her siblings – for the people she really trusted. People she had known all her life – so it more than confused her when she realized that there was suddenly another person she wanted to share her deepest thoughts with. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”, Chaeyoung’s voice cuts through the silence between them and pulls Jisoo out of her thoughts.  
She looks up into soft eyes and knows immediately what the blonde girl means. 

“I know. I want to though.”, the Korean returns – a small smile showing up on her face. 

Chaeyoung only looks back at her for a few seconds, before her sight shifts and she looks straight ahead again. There’s a frown on her forehead but before Jisoo can comment on it, it’s gone again. Still, it’s enough evidence for Jisoo to confirm what she had been fearing, so she stops in her tracks – holding back the other girl by reaching for the sleeve of her jacket.  
Chaeyoung turns to look at her with a puzzled facial expression – not knowing what’s going on. 

“You think you’re a burden, am I right?”

The tall girl doesn’t move one muscle – her face as tense at it had been the whole day up until now. 

“Because she couldn’t love and treat you right, you somehow came to the conclusion that it must’ve been your fault. That you were asking too much of her. That you are too exhausting to be with.”

The blonde’s eyes cast downwards to the floor – as she is clenching her jaw plainly. 

“You’re not a burden, Chaeyoung.”, Jisoo clarifies emphatically and frowns when she earns a dry laugh from the other girl. 

“How would you know, huh? You’ve known me for 3 days tops.”

“Yeah.”, Jisoo mumbles and shrugs. “You know, time is a funny thing. Sometimes it’s the most important thing on earth and other times… well, other times time really doesn’t fucking matter at all.” 

She sends Chaeyoung a pointed look and takes a deep breath. She knew it wouldn’t be that easy to convince her. 

“I’ve maybe only known you for a few days, but you see, within those days I’ve learned that you have one of the biggest hearts I’ve ever met. You went and helped Jennie pick up Leo even though the worst thing happened to you that same day, because you wanted to keep your word and you wanted to be there when your best friend finally got one of her biggest dreams fulfilled. That’s how much you love Lisa. That’s also why you accepted Jennie immediately – and you supported the both of them from the start. You made Jennie feel welcome and you made room for her in your life as well, because you knew that she was now a part of Lisa’s life and therefore yours too. You have no idea how many times Jennie called me to tell me how relieved she was that you were the way you are. You’re selfless and would much rather have your friends have a nice breakfast whilst you die inwardly because you received fucked-up news, than to ruin their morning. You’re nice to everybody – even to the annoying best friend who visits out of the blue and says inappropriate things almost all the time. You constantly look out for everyone, no matter how drunk or upset you are and don’t even get me started about the fact that you radiate contentment and love with every move you make. I’ve noticed how people on the streets look at you when you smile, because I know I look at you the same way. You see, people around you just can’t be unhappy. Because of you. And now tell me, girl with a voice like a rose and an aura like the sun, how can someone like you be a burden when all you do is make others happier?” 

Chaeyoung’s mouth is slightly agape once Jisoo finishes her rant – a soft blush on both their faces. The dark-haired girl bites her lower lip – not really having realized until now how much she’d just spilled. Usually, she was a rather reserved person when it came to her own feelings and anyway, Jisoo didn’t do feelings. She only evoked them in others – that’s what she told herself anyway. But the way Chaeyoung was looking at her right now, told her that she might have given herself away just now. 

“I’m…”, the blonde starts but closes her mouth again – completely unsure of how she should react to this. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Then don’t say anything.”, Jisoo returns and nods towards a little clearing on top of a small hill. “Let’s sit down and enjoy the sun, yeah?” 

She doesn’t wait for Chaeyoung’s answer as she rushes away – in urgent need of some distance between them so she can breathe properly again.  
The sudden outburst of her own feelings making her uncomfortable. She was Jisoo Kim for God’s sake. She didn’t do cheesy speeches – and if so, then only to get laid. But certainly not to make someone else feel better about themselves. 

It takes a moment before Jisoo feels the other girl lay down beside where she’s places herself in the grass and it makes her heartbeat increase when their arms brush against each other.  
She’s taken aback by the sudden realization that Chaeyoung’s hand is reaching for her own and even though they’ve touched carelessly before these past few days – something felt different this time around and Jisoo has to suck in some air audibly because her lungs crave oxygen all of a sudden. 

The other girls skin feels warm on her own and it tingles a little. Jisoo has to suppress the sight that’s about to leave her mouth as well as the urge to turn around and face Chaeyoung. More than anything she wants to study the look on the other girl’s face right now, but she’s too afraid to reveal the emotions plastered all over her own. So she keeps staring at the blue sky above them – suddenly very interested in the shades of colors she sees. 

“Beautiful.” Chaeyoung’s voice is calm and collected – the exact opposite from what Jisoo’s mind is like right now. Still, she nods, because yeah, the sky is mesmerizing. 

“A beautiful new perspective.”, the blonde girl clarifies and then softly squeezes the Korean’s hand, which leads her to cast a look to her side. 

Contrary to her expectations though, Chaeyoung isn’t looking heavenwards but instead, her unwavering eyes are on Jisoo – an indefinable expression on her face. 

The shorter girl squints her eyes, but finds herself unable to move – suddenly petrified and shy, something she didn’t even know she could be.  
Chaeyoung stays silent for some moments too – but then her face lights up and she starts giggling which eventually turns into a full-on laugh as she nudges Jisoo’s shoulder with her own. 

“Come on, Chu. The one time I actually call you beautiful and there’s no reaction from you? Not even one little, cocky remark? How about ‘aaah so you actually do find me attractive’ or something?” 

Before Jisoo knows, the other girl pushes herself up and with one swift move she straddles her – her hands finding their way to her sides as she starts tickling her. 

“Come on.”, Chaeyoung challenges and tickles even harder – making Jisoo finally squirm under her touch. 

“Ugh, stop it, Chaeng.”, the dark-haired girl whines and tries to push her off, but she’s surprisingly strong as she pushes back. 

“Say it. Say something whitty. Do it.”, Chaeyoung commands and grins when there’s a stifled laugh coming from the girl beneath her. 

“No way.”, Jisoo spits back while trying to roll them both over. Still no such luck – this girl definitely works out a lot. 

“I’m not going to stop until you say it.”

“No.”

“You gotta.”

“No.”

“Imma just keep tickling you until you die then.” 

Jisoo snorts and fends off Chaeyoungs hands successfully. 

“And what good would that be, huh? Then you would have to live without this stunning face and we both know that you don’t want that…”

“Aaah.”, the blonde girl smirks and moves her hands down over Jisoo’s ribs to her waist where she squeezes softly, before she lets go completely. “There she is. Welcome back Miss flirty-pants. I missed you.” 

“Oh, fuck off.”, Jisoo gags and rolls her eyes – the smile plastered on her face never leaving though. “You’re annoying.” 

“You like that about me.”, Chaeyoung grins and sends Jisoo a wink, to which she only receives a shake of her head and a sight. 

“Yeah, I do. That’s the problem. I like a lot of things about you.”

“Well..”, Chaeyoung shrugs and moves to sit beside Jisoo again. “Then at least it’s the same for both of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what y'all think? 
> 
> i kinda like this thing between these two. but sadly jisoo has to leave NY soon.  
> i'm curious what'll happen to them once she does. 
> 
> are you? :P


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re so beautiful.”
> 
> Lisa’s words make Jennie look up – her feline eyes squinting a little bit as she bites the inside of her cheek. 
> 
> “I’m wearing sweatpants and a hoodie.”, Jennie smirks. “That’s not exactly the epitome of beauty.” 
> 
> “As if that matters.”, Lisa waves her off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> who else here is dead? 
> 
> sorry for the wait, but I died 8345044 deaths bc LiLi-film and yeah.. you guys probably know.  
> I had to watch that shit a million times. i'm still crying a little bit.  
> i love lisa. 
> 
> anyway... WATCH OUT FOR THIS ONE. if you can't handle a little steam, then better not read this chapter, lol.  
> don't say I didn't warn you.  
> 

**Chapter 20**

“That was Chaeng.”, Lisa says when she enters the livingroom – throwing her phone onto the kitchen-island carelessly. “Her and Jisoo are at Central Park enjoying the sun. They’ll come back here before dinnertime.” 

“Okay.”, Jennie returns absent mindedly – too busy with petting Leo who lays with her on the couch. Her eyes are fixed on the kitten as she strokes his smooth fur. When he purrs and stretches out, Jennie giggles softly at him – making the smile on Lisa’s face grow as well.  
For a moment, Lisa just stands there – watching the glow in her girlfriend’s eyes increase. It makes her heart skip a few beats – the way Jennie looks right now, all happy and relaxed. That’s the way she should always be and Lisa makes a mental note to herself that this is her goal in life from now on. 

“You’re so beautiful.”

Lisa’s words make Jennie look up – her feline eyes squinting a little bit as she bites the inside of her cheek. 

“I’m wearing sweatpants and a hoodie.”, Jennie smirks. “That’s not exactly the epitome of beauty.” 

“As if that matters.”, Lisa waves her off – making her way over to where Jennie is laying and sitting down beside her, lifting the other girl’s feet into her lap. “You’re always beautiful. Although...”  
She stops mid-sentence to slowly move her fingers from Jennie’s legs up to where the waistband of her pants and the hem of her pullover meet. “I must admit that you’d also look good without all this stuff.” 

Jennie snorts and shakes her head. “You mean, without the clothes?”

Lisa hums and nudges up the Korean’s hoodie a tiny bit – her eyes linger on the small strip of skin it reveals. She strokes it with her index finger and Jennie almost jumps at the touch. It’s fleeting, but it almost drives her crazy.  
Lisa just somehow knew from the very beginning how and where to touch her, to make her feel all sort of things and it amazes Jennie up to this day how natural it seems to come to her. But then again, almost every touch of Lisa’s made her skin tingle and burn anyway. 

“Can you remove that?”, Lisa voices out – getting back Jennie’s attention as she picks on her sweater lightly. “I gotta check something.” 

Jennie playfully rolls her eyes as she pulls herself up in a semi-upright position – Leo jumping off the couch to go lay in his kitten-bed the second Jennie moves a bit too hard for his liking.  
Jennie gently kicks Lisa’s side with her foot and raises an eyebrow. 

“You gotta check something? Underneath my hoodie?”, she repeats and sends the other girl a knowing look. 

“Yeah.”, Lisa states and shrugs nonchalantly as she slowly moves to hover over Jennie’s body. “It’s a very important scientific review, actually. I have to check a thesis, you see.” 

“Aaaah.”, Jennie nods and moves her hands down to the end of her hoodie – grasping the hem. “Well, if that’s the case… Wouldn’t want to stand in the way of science now, would I.” 

“You better not.”, Lisa mumbles as she straddles Jennie’s lower legs and in one swift move helps her girlfriend remove the sweater – leaving the smaller girl her sports bra. Her hair gets a little messy in the process but it’s not like Lisa would’ve realized, because the second Jennie’s hoodie is gone, her eyes are fixed on her now bare stomach. It almost elicits a moan from Jennie, the way Lisa’s eyes get ten shades darker and she licks her lips repeatedly. 

The Thai girl moves her hands on either side of the older girl’s side’s and slowly lowers her head until her nose almost hits Jennie’s stomach. She’s slow with her moves and Jennie almost wants to smack her for teasing her like this – but she doesn’t, because she somehow likes it and Lisa obviously knows that.  
It takes her more than five seconds until her lips meet Jennie’s skin just underneath her right hip bone and this time, she can’t suppress the deep groan leaving her parted lips.  
Given any other situation, Jennie would’ve been embarrassed at how strongly her body reacted to this small touch – but not with Lisa on top of her and certainly not when she can clearly feel the other girl’s mouth turn into a smile as she leaves a trail of more open-mouthed kisses up her belly. 

She doesn’t even realize that she had closed her eyes to savor the contact, until Lisa’s tongue licks the spot just where her jawline meets her neck.

“Fuck.”, Jennie pants and throws her head back automatically – but before she knows what happened, Lisa pushes herself up on her slender arms to look down at the other girl’s face.  
When Jennie reluctantly opens one eye, she’s met with a very cocky smile and sparkling eyes. 

“What? What happened? Why did you stop?”, she asks and surprises herself by how frustrated she sounds. 

Lisa’s smirk just grows bigger and bigger and Jennie’s close to kick her shin or something. What the hell was wrong with this girl – stopping mid-way of foreplay. 

“My thesis has been confirmed.”, Lisa grins and sends Jennie a not-subtle-at-all wink. “My job here is done.” 

She bends back and moves to sit back over at the other end of the couch. 

“What the fuck, Manoban? Come back and finish what you started, right now.”, Jennie commands and she actually starts to feel a little annoyed. What on earth was Lisa playing here? Did she want Jennie to die, or something?

“Oh, so bossy.”, Lisa teases and casts a look over to where Jennie’s still laying in her sweats and bra. “Only if you ask nicely and tell me that I’m still a cool badass.”

There’s a little moment of silence in which Lisa’s smirk grows bigger again and Jennie rolls her eyes. 

“So that’s what this is about. You want to regain your coolness-status because you were too much of a cutie-pie these days?”

“If you call me cutie-pie one more time, you’re never ever getting laid again.”, Lisa scoffs and makes Jennie laugh loudly. 

“Okay then, I’ll just do it myself.”, the Korean shrugs and just like that starts removing her sweatpants. 

“Wait, what?”, Lisa’s taken aback – gulping down several times when Jennie’s hand disappears in her underwear. “No, no, no, no… That’s not fair.”, the younger one whines – her eyes wide as she sits and watches her girlfriend. 

“Come and help me then.”, Jennie murmurs seductively – a small laugh escaping her mouth when Lisa’s back on top of her not one second later. 

“You’re so mean.”, the Thai girl declares, but Jennie just grins and pulls Lisa’s head down until their swollen lips collide. 

“Who’s the badass now, huh?”, she mumbles against Lisa – who simply replies with her tongue pushing inside Jennie’s mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh uh uh. i'm not very good at this. 
> 
> hope you guys enjoyed it anyway. 
> 
> let me know ;)
> 
> PS: i won't be able to update a few days bc I'm out skiing. sorry :) cu soon.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Do you have everything? Passport? Ticket? Water? Something to read?”
> 
> Jennie scans her best friend with her gaze and them moves to fix the scarf around Jisoo’s neck, so it’s perfectly centered.  
> Lisa’s hands find their way around Jennie’s waist as she slowly pulls her girlfriend back a little bit – Jisoo’s laugh audible to their ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait... hope it was worth it for you guys :)

**Chapter 21**

“Do you have everything? Passport? Ticket? Water? Something to read?”

Jennie scans her best friend with her gaze and then moves to fix the scarf around Jisoo’s neck, so it’s perfectly centered.  
Lisa’s hands find their way around Jennie’s waist as she slowly pulls her girlfriend back a little bit – Jisoo’s laugh audible to their ears. 

“Yes Mom. For the tenth time: I’m all set. I even packed the sandwich you made me and no I won’t eat it because it looks like it’s already been eaten once before.” 

“Hey!”, Jennie cries as she leans back into Lisa – sending Jisoo a death glare. “Stop being so mean. At least someone here is looking out for you and your stomach.”

“More like someone here wants to kill me and my stomach.”, Jisoo snorts and sidesteps the smaller Korean’s foot who’s trying to kick her.  
Meanwhile, Lisa pulls something out of her back pocket and hands it to Jisoo swiftly – failing miserably at the attempt for Jennie not to realize what she’s doing when the oldest one squeals, and her eyes light up. 

“Oh my God. Thanks Mom number two. That’s much better.”  
She puts away the ten Dollar bill, but not without waving it in front of her best friends face first. 

“Lisa-ya!”, Jennie scolds and turns around to give the Thai girl a pointed look. “Way to undermine my attempt to get her to eat healthier.” 

Lisa shrugs and raises an eyebrow at the girl in front of her. “Please, like one meal is going to change her eating habits.” 

“At least it’s a start.”

“She’s old enough to decide on her own.” 

“Okaaay…Enough.”, Jisoo interrupts – one hand flying up as she puts it on her forehead. “You guys are like an old married couple. It’s giving me a headache.” 

She doesn’t suppress the grin that creeps on her face as she watches her two friends blush simultaneously. It’s only a second later that Jennie rolls her eyes, like she often does when Jisoo calls her out. 

“Just eat the damn sandwich, Chu.”, she mumbles – her face getting softer again when Jisoo nods and sends her an apologetic smile. 

“I’m going to miss you, stupid.” The older Korean’s voice is mellow and it’s a very clear sign of her candor.  
She takes a step forward and wraps her arms around her best friend’s tiny body – squeezing her as tight as possible. She’s never been a girl of grand gestures – she’s more a person of words – but with Jennie it always had been quite different. Since Jennie had been all touchy-feely even when they were little kids, Jisoo had learned that her best friend needed physical contact in certain situations. And farewells were clearly part of it. 

“I’ll miss you more. Call me as soon as you land, okay? Promise.” 

“Of course, Jen. I promise.”, Jisoo replies and presses a small kiss to the side of her best friends head.  
She watches Lisa, who’s standing beside them, while she’s still hugging Jennie and the soft look on the Thai girls face soothes her to a huge extent. It’s never easy to leave behind her best friend – never was and never will be – but now that Jisoo knows Lisa and the way she loves, respects and protects Jennie, she feels oddly calm. 

“Take care of her, will you?”, Jisoo whispers into the Thai girl’s ear nevertheless, once she releases Jennie and moves over to give Lisa a hug too. 

“Sure I will. Don’t worry, Chu.”

They break their embrace and Lisa’s by Jennie’s side not a blink later – holding her hand and stroking her thumb over the back of it reassuringly. She can feel the tenseness in Jennie’s body and she knows that it’s not easy for her to let Jisoo leave again this quickly. 

“We’re going to miss you here. It was nice having you around.”

Lisa’s words are not much – but they hit something inside Jisoo that almost makes her choke up. She shakes her head tongue-tied and sends the other girls a tight-lipped smile.  
She had to tell herself to pull it together because she’s not a sentimental human being - but the way Jennie and Lisa both look at her with sad eyes make the resolutions fly out the window faster than expected. 

“Funny thing.”, she tries to wrap it in a joke, but her shaky voice betrays her. “I’m sad about leaving you guys.” 

“Aw, Chu.”, Lisa coos and Jennie takes a deep breath as she has to withhold going in for another embrace again – already feeling the tears behind her eyelids, but also knowing that they wouldn’t help Jisoo in this moment. 

“I knew you liked me.”, Lisa smiles and somehow, she’s able to lighten the tension with that, because Jisoo’s quick to reply: “I’m not talking about you. I meant Jen and Chaeng.” 

Jennie chuckles – her heart full when she watches her girlfriend roll her eyes and her best friend stick out her tongue, the mood shifting into something she’s felt a lot these past few days. 

“Where is that girl anyway?”, Lisa asks and for the first time they all look around the departure-hall where a lot of busy people go about their day. 

“I think she went to the bathroom?”, Jennie shrugs and then side-eyes Jisoo who seems rather disinterested in Chaeyoung’s whereabouts. In fact, she even looks pleased when they can’t seem to spot here in any of the crowds. 

The voice coming from the speakers above them calls out for Jisoo’s flight to Seoul and the oldest girl picks up her huge Dior backpack in a swift move. 

“That’s my cue.”, she says and bites her lower lip – her eyes on her best friend once again. 

“Thanks for everything, you guys. And give Chaeng my regards, yeah?”

“Sure.”, Lisa retorts and Jennie knows that she’s silently hoping for Chaeyoung to turn up right this second – but she doesn’t and it’s Jennie whose hand moves to ruffle the older Korean’s hair one last time. 

Jisoo grunts and flips her off – before disappearing into the direction of passport and luggage control – leaving behind two waving friends. 

The line for border control is quite long and Jisoo sights when she realizes that she’s likely to be late to board the flight today. Maybe she even misses it. It’s not like she would be mad at that. It would give her a few more hours in New York and a few more hours with….

“Were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?” 

Jisoo jumps when a warm hand suddenly pinches her arm and she has to suck in a lot of air when she’s met with soft, light-brown eyes and a blonde mane. 

“I… I’m already late…”, she stammers a little embarrassed but Chaeyoung is smiling at her nonetheless and is eases her immediately. 

“Sorry. I.. I guess I didn’t know how to say goodbye to you, so I just…” “Chickened out.”, the blonde girl finishes for her – the smile on her face never fading. 

“Yeah.”, Jisoo answers truthfully and shrugs. 

Chaeyoung nods and lowers her gaze before reaching back into the bag that’s hanging from her shoulder. With a quick move she pulls something out and holds it out in front of the older Korean. 

Jisoo blinks a few times – not really knowing what’s happening but feeling her own heartbeat increasing at the sight. 

There’s a slight blush of red on Chaeyoung’s cheeks when she mumbles: “It’s so you won’t forget me.”

Jisoo is reluctant to take the flower from her hands – a chuckle escaping her mouth as she does. 

“A rose?”

“Yeah.”

The Korean grins and closes her eyes for a moment, before nodding once more.

“Thank you. It’s beautiful. But it’s not like I could ever forget about you anyway. Just so you know.”

Chaeyoung’s eyes meet hers and it almost makes Jisoo breathless for a second. And then she’s completely out of breath when the blonde steps forward and places a kiss on her lips. It’s soft and chaste and short, but it’s everything Jisoo could've ever dreamt off and more. 

“You better not. Take care, my Chichu.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> always a pleasure to read your comments, so please, don't withhold ;-*


	22. Chapter  22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You’re quiet. Everything okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you guys.. I really wanted to thank you all properly at least once.  
> it's so nice to see how many of you read this, like this, respond to this, and so on.  
> it honestly warms my heart to know that my work makes y'all smile and wonder and hope and whatnot.  
> it's always the best reward for an author to see and know this - so THANK YOU SO MUCH! 
> 
> lots of love for you all and please stay safe and healthy and happy, wherever and whoever you are. 
> 
> <3

**Chapter 22**

“You’re quiet. Everything okay?”

Lisa scoots over to where Chaeyoung is sitting on their living room floor – Jennie’s head in her lap and Leo squeezed between the blonde’s stomach and the Korean’s face.  
They all had been rather silent since they arrived back at apartment 34 – Lisa’s best friend tagging along without a word because it wasn’t needed. They were all sad about Jisoo’s departure and some a little more than others. 

“I’m fine.”, Chaeyoung mumbles and tickles Leo’s furry stomach – watching him closely so she doesn’t have to look at Lisa. She knows that the Thai girl can read her like a book anyway. 

It’s silent again for another moment and then Jennie speaks up, surprising the other two with her statement. 

“She really likes you, you know.” Her feline eyes flicker over Chaeng’s face and stay there, even though the blonde is still solely looking at the kitten in her lap.  
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Chu act the way she did with you, with anyone else before.”

Lisa bites her lip and watches her best friend who just nods – far away and lost in her own thoughts.  
Jennie sights and brings her body into a sitting position – careful not to disturb the small cat beside her. 

“Did something happen between the both of you that you didn’t tell us?”, Lisa asks further – knowing very well that Chaeyoung hates these kinds of interrogations, but she can feel that there’s something her best friend is bottling up inside and it seems to be eating her alive. So she pushes, because she knows that Chaeyoung needs to get this off her chest – even if she doesn’t know that yet. 

The silence that follows is answer enough. Jennie sends her a pointed look and raises an eyebrow – as if to warn her not to overstep boundaries, but Lisa knows Chaeyoung and she knows that there’s no such thing in their friendship, so she gives it another try. 

“Chaeng?”

“I kissed her.”, the blonde girl answers after a heartbeat – biting the insides of her cheeks. She has a premonition of what might happen next and she’s proven right when Jennie turns her whole body in her direction – a little frown appearing on her forehead.  
Meanwhile Lisa looks rather pleased – but she stops her attempt for a high-five when she’s met with two pairs of serious eyes. 

“Do you like her too?”

Jennie’s question is straight forward, and yet her voice is still somewhat soft. Nonetheless, it’s the first time Lisa finds her rather intimidating and she’s not sure if she finds it scary or hot. She decides that it’s a bit of both. 

Her attention is back on her best friend when Chaeyoung clears her throat – her eyes fixed on Jennie’s again.

“I know what you’re up to Jennie, and it’s honorable but I’m afraid I can’t tell you exactly what you want to hear. Yes, I do like Jisoo and no I would never want to hurt her, but still I can’t lie about the fact that for these past few days she’s more or less been a distraction for me. A very welcome and beautiful one, don’t get me wrong – but my breakup was only some weeks ago and there’s still a lot I need to work through before I can get involved with someone new.” 

“Okay.”, Jennie returns and squints – never breaking eye contact with the blonde girl beside her.  
“Guess that’s fair. Does Jisoo know that?”

“I don’t know. But it’s not like she was being serious about us as well, right? It was just flirting.” 

Jennie presses her lips together and rocks her entire upper body back and forth a few times. 

“Probably. I still think you should let her know. With Lisa and me being together, the two of you will most likely have to deal with each other for a long time and-.” “Forever, you mean.”, Lisa perks in and Jennie sends her a smile and a fake-annoyed eyeroll. “Forever. Of course, babe.”, she repeats the Thai girl’s words, before turning her attention back to Chaeyoung. “Just… don’t get her hopes up, please. She might act like she’s all fearless and invulnerable, but she’s not.” 

“Jennie…”, Chaeng sights and places a hand on top of the Korean’s shoulder. “I would never intentionally hurt someone and certainly not someone I like and most definitely not someone who means a lot to Lisa as well. I know we’ve not known each other long enough for you to be sure about that, but I reassure you that I’m not like that, so please, don’t worry.” 

She squeezes the Korean’s shoulder to support her statement as Jennie sends her an apologetic look. 

“Alright.”, she mumbles and lifts her own hand to cover Chaeyoung’s – brushing her thumb over the other girl’s knuckles. “I’m sorry it’s just-.” “I know.”, the blonde girl confirms in a hushed voice. “I would do the same if the roles were reversed.” 

They both nod and smile at each other – a deep understanding for one another visible in their facial expressions.

“Awww look at that.”, Lisa’s cooing voice rings out – making the two other girls look over at puzzled. “My two best girls sorting out issues and deepening their relationship, like the adults I know they are underneath all these layers.” 

“Oi, what do you mean ‘underneath all these layers’, Lalisa Manoban?”, Chaeyoung snorts and points her index finger at her best friend threateningly. 

“Yeah but really. Explain yourself woman!”, Jennie adds and slides over to where her girlfriend is leaning back into the couch. She reaches up and grabs the pillow closest to her, before swinging it dangerously close to Lisa’s head. 

Lisa defensively holds up both her hands in front of her face and squeals: “Please, no, have mercy.”

But before she knows, Chaeyoung’s on her feet as well – supporting Jennie by hitting her with another pillow as well.  
Lisa tries to dodge them and swat away the cushions, but it’s two against one and she doesn’t really stand a chance, so she eventually gives up – soft chuckles escaping her mouth when she lets them throw the soft items at her without resistance. 

“Just so you both know.”, she laughs in between hits. “This fully confirms my point.”

The cackled ‘shut up’s and the laughs she gets in return are in sync by the other girls and Lisa doesn’t think she’s ever heard a better sound in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lisa's always the one to lighten the mood it seems, huh. 
> 
> let's see if she also does this when she runs into Kai again.
> 
> prepare yourselves;)


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jennie blinks and clenches her teeth before moving her hand over her face. 
> 
> “Do we really need to do this right now? My day has been the worst already and I’m so not in the mood to fight with you.”, she sets straight and watches the other girl get up from her spot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhm, so for this chapter.. i'm sorry.  
> and: i swear i suffer with you.... ;D 
> 
> hope you like it!

**Chapter 23**

Jennie’s late for dinner for the fifth day in a row and Lisa has to admit that it’s slowly starting to piss her off a little bit.  
She knows that there’s a lot going on at the Korean’s workplace at the moment and she would never condemn Jennie for that, but she just really misses their cozy evenings and most of all, she misses her girlfriend – her scent, her gummy-smiles, her lazy kisses and her cute baby-voice when she talks to Leo.  
But with all the pressure and workload, Jennie was doing a lot of overtime lately and she was tired and sleepy once she got home – sometimes she even came back to the apartment so late that Lisa was already asleep by then.  
Lisa tried though – really, she did. She tried to stay awake until the dark-haired girl arrived, prepared dinner for her that she only had to heat up in the microwave and even gave her massages until Jennie fell asleep and she was happy to do all these things for her – but today Lisa felt annoyed. 

She had texted Jennie about four times – asking her when she would get back, so she could run her a relaxing bubble bath, only to never get a reply from the other girl.  
Lisa didn’t want to feel this way – she knew that life sometimes got in the way of a relationship, but she had been so determined to not let that happen with Jennie that it now somehow felt like a defeat. 

Lisa sights and reaches over to where Leo is sound asleep – purring away as his legs kick out from time to time due to his dreams.  
“I would do almost everything to switch lives with you right now, dude.”, she mumbles to the cat and strokes his head lovingly. “All you have to do is eat and sleep and being cute as hell.”  
He quivers again and almost wakes himself up in the process – his eyes fluttering open for a second, but when Lisa continues to pet him, he closes them again.  
“You think I’m being stupid too, don’t you?”, Lisa asks without expecting an answer of course. “I know, I know. It’s not my place to be angry or something, but I just miss her. I don’t want us to become this couple that only ever really sees each other on the weekends.”  
Leo purrs when Lisa caresses his tiny ears and a sight escapes the Thai-girl’s lips – her eyes wandering to the clock on the kitchen-wall. It’s 10.40 p.m. and there’s still no sign of the Korean girl. 

She’s almost tempted to call Jennie again, but she doesn’t want to be that type of girlfriend, so she just stares at her phone laying on the coffee table – hoping that it would somehow miraculously light up or something. It doesn’t and the queasy feeling in her stomach intensifies. 

“Stop being so stupid, Manoban. What the fuck is wrong with you?”, Lisa mumbles to herself after another moment she spends in silence and lost in thoughts. “Pull yourself together and don’t be a crybaby!” 

Leo’s ears perk up then and Lisa almost wants to apologize for talking too loudly – but before she knows, Leo is wide awake and his head snaps in the direction of the front door.  
Lisa watches him as he brings himself into a standing position – his eyes glued to the entrance and when some seconds later the sound of keys in the lock are audible, he jumps off the couch and runs to greet whoever just arrived. 

Lisa can’t help but grin at his unwavering sense of knowing when Jennie’s about to get home and the way he greets her at the door every night. 

The Thai girl can hear the other woman hang up her coat on the rack and then talk to their kitten in a hushed voice. She’s probably aware of the time and thinks that Lisa might already be asleep, so she tries to enter the living room as quietly as possible – a little startled when she finds her girlfriend sit on the sofa wide awake. 

“Oh, hey. You’re still awake.”, the smaller girl realizes and checks her watch real quick before moving closer to where Lisa is sitting. 

“Yeah. I waited up. I wanted to see you.”, Lisa explains and she hates the fact that her voice sounds somewhat harsh.  
Even though Jennie looks tired as fuck, she’s quick to pick up the tension and her shoulders fall just like her face does and Lisa immediately feels like the biggest jerk on the planet. 

“I’m sorry I’m late… Again.”, the Korean mumbles and bites her lower lip as she watches the other girl’s face closely. “I know I said that the last few days as well and nothing changed but please believe me there’s nothing I can do at the moment. Work’s just…. crazy.” 

Lisa shrugs and nods at the same time – but her heart is not really satisfied with this answer. 

“I know that, and I wish I could do something to help, but… I also have stress at work sometimes but I still make time to come home at a reasonably normal time or at least call or text you back, Jen.”

Jennie blinks and clenches her teeth before moving her hand over her face. 

“Do we really need to do this right now? My day has been the worst already and I’m so not in the mood to fight with you.”, she sets straight and watches the other girl get up from her spot.  
Lisa walks over to her with her head low and only stops when she’s right in front of Jennie. She presses her lips together before looking up into squinted feline eyes. 

“I too don’t want to fight with you, Jennie. And I’m sorry that your day hasn’t been good. We don’t have to talk about it, it’s just…. I’m afraid that we might drift apart and I…. I just don’t want us to…. I don’t know. I’m just scared to lose you.”

She closes her eyes because she’s a little bit afraid of what she might discover in Jennie’s dark orbs – but the girl in front of her doesn’t let her.  
Jennie places both of her hands on Lisa’s face – cupping her cheeks. 

“Look at me, Lisa. Please.”, she murmurs and softly strokes her thumbs over the smooth skin beneath them. She’s so close to the Thai girl that she could count all of her eyelashes right now and when her lids flutter open, she’s met with a look that almost breaks something within her.  
She wants to scream into her pillow for being the reason Lisa looks so broken right now, but Jennie realizes that it’s not solely her fault.  
She sends the taller girl a gentle look before speaking her mind. 

“I know you’re afraid. I know you’re scared that life might come in the way and that we’ll somehow lose each other. You’re afraid because that’s what happened with Minnie. But Lisa… I’m not Minnie and what happened with you both won’t happen with us. Do you want to know why I know that?” 

Lisa only nods – too tongue tied to say anything right now, the tingling sensation in her abdomen almost too much to handle. 

“I know it because I love you. I love you so much already that it kinda scares me, because if I feel this way after some months, then imagine how much I’m gonna love you after some years? I love you so much I’d quit my job tomorrow if you’d ask me to. Maybe I’m not the best yet at showing you – but I see and appreciate everything you do for me when I come home stressed out but Lisa, there’ll always be times like this, when we don’t have much time together. But they’re just limited time periods. It’s never going to just stay this way – we’ll both prevent that, because we love each other, okay? I won’t let us loose each other. I promise.” 

Jennie moves her thumbs over Lisa’s cheeks again – this time wiping away the tears that are falling whilst the Thai girl just nods over and over again.  
She still can’t speak – a huge lump in her throat but her hands finding Jennie’s waist and pulling her closer and closer until they are merely inseparable, is answer enough for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay for working through relationship-problems, right?   
> wish i was as good as them tbh haha
> 
> cu


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Honey, I’m home.” 
> 
> “I’m in the living room. And don’t ever call me honey again, you idiot.”

**Chapter 24**

“Honey, I’m home.” 

Lisa looks up from the laptop sitting in her lap on which she just edited a dance-practice-video for three tiring hours. She rubs her eyes and sights – still not entirely satisfied with the result. 

“I’m in the living room.”, she shouts back and then adds: “And don’t ever call me honey again, you idiot.”

It’s only a second after that another person joins her on the couch with a pout on their face.  
“That really hurts my feelings.” 

“Shut up.” Lisa shoves the other girl’s shoulder playfully and sets aside her computer before looking up into her best friend’s eyes again. 

Chaeyoung grins and moves closer to Lisa – side-hugging her and burying her nose into the Thai girl’s neck. 

“Where’s Jennie?”, the blonde asks after a moment of silence – never breaking their embrace as Lisa moves to get them into a slightly more comfortable position. 

“She’s at work.”, she answers – not really surprised when she gets a low hum from Chaeyoung in return. 

“It’s Sunday.”

“I know.”, Lisa mumbles and before the other girl can reply something, adds: “We’re fine, don’t worry. She’s just very busy at the moment.” 

At that Chaeyoung sits up and glares at Lisa – a soft frown on her forehead and her knee jumping anxiously. 

“I always worry about you. It’s what best friends do, you know.” 

Lisa sends her a smile and takes her hand into her own – squeezing it reassuringly.  
Ever since they had become friends in middle-school she’d wondered how she ended up with a friend like Chaeyoung, even though the two of them were nothing alike. Lisa had always been more outgoing, confident and up for any stupid idea anyone had whereas the blonde girl was quieter and more thoughtful. They soon learned that they balanced each other out perfectly and that’s why they’d always stuck together like glue.  
But even after more than 10 years of friendship there still were times where Lisa asked herself how she got so lucky.

“I know. But really, everything’s fine. Jennie and I talked about it and we both understand that it’s just a phase.” 

Chaeyoung snorts which makes Lisa look at her a little puzzled. 

“It’s just a phase…. Never thought that’s something I’ll ever hear from your mouth.”, the blonde girl laughs and when Lisa gets what she’s referring to, she joins in – shaking her head at her best friend. 

“Speaking of phases…”, Lisa starts, and her counterpart tilts her head back as she puts both of her hands over her face in disguise. 

“Care to update me about Miss Korea?”

“No.”, Chaeyoung murmurs through her fingers – already feeling the blush creep onto her cheeks as Lisa nudges her side. 

“Come on, Chaeng. It’s me. Lisa. Your bestie. Your BFF. Your platonic soulmate. Your someday-maid-of-honor. The godmother of your future children.”

“Okay! Wow! Geez. Chill.”, the blonde girl shrieks and removes the hands from her face – only to earn a giggle from Lisa because her face actually is a red as a tomato. 

“Fuck you, Manoban.”, she grumbles before slapping her best friends arm playfully. Lisa just keeps staring at her though – waiting for an explanation expectantly.  
The older girl takes a few deep breaths before closing her eyes again. She’s never been good at acknowledging her own feelings and even less at telling someone about them – because talking about it makes it real and she’s not sure that she’s ready for that yet. 

“I don’t know how to say it.”, Chaeyoung states slowly – opening her eyes again so she can finally see the calm look on her best friend’s face. 

“Try it with words maybe.”, Lisa recommends – her intonation shrewd and witty and Chaeyoung can’t help but roll her eyes at that. That’s always how Lisa got her talking – by softly making fun of her and therefore lightening the mood to an extend in which the blonde felt all her anxiety fly out the window. That was one of the biggest reasons why Chaeyoung loved Lisa so dearly. 

“Smart ass.”, the older one whispers. Lisa looks at her intently again and raises one eyebrow – eding her on wordlessly.

“Ugh, fine…”, Chaeyoung surrenders and runs her hand over her face once again. “We are… talking. I guess. Like… daily, but it’s not like… I don’t know. It’s just casual. She tells me about her days and how it goes at work and I tell her about my gigs and how I don’t make enough money for someone who lives in New York. It’s no big deal. I mean, I promised Jennie I would tell Jisoo how I’m not really interested in something serious and I did, so… we’re just being friendly.”

Lisa stays silent until she’s sure that her best friend is done talking and then she bites the inside of her cheek before blurting out: “Yeah, no. I call bullshit.” 

“What?”, Chaeyoung says - holding her breath without even realizing it until Lisa answers again. 

“I know you. There’s more to it.”, the younger girl announces calmly – shrugging her shoulders as if to underline her statement. 

Chaeyoung shakes her head, because really, it’s fucking ridiculous how easily Lisa can read her and from time to time she wishes it was different – even if it is very rare. 

“I sometimes hate you, you know?”, she moans and lets her head fall forward into Lisa’s bony shoulder. 

“You only ever hate me when I’m being right, so… You just gave yourself away, Park.”

“Fine.”, Chaeyoung concedes and pushes her head against Lisa a little harder. With her head still somewhat low, she fumbles with the hem of her best friend’s shirt before admitting carefully: “Truth is, I wasn’t completely honest when I said those things about not being ready for something new yet. I thought I wasn’t. And maybe I even wanted not to be, but… there’s just something about Jisoo that makes me forget all those things. I think I’m really starting to like her and… I really don’t want to mess this up, Li. Not when I can’t stop thinking about her all day. I think she’s put a spell on me or something. It’s really embarrassing, but… I just feel so much more like myself ever since I met her.” 

She glances up at Lisa who just looks at her with big eyes and an even bigger smile spread across her face. 

“Guess I’m screwed, huh?” 

Lisa puffs some air out of her nose and grins as she nudges her best friends nose with her finger.  
“Yep. You got it bade, dude.”, Lisa winks and then moves to push her forehead against the blonde’s. “It’s fine though. Imma help you get your girl.” 

“Oh dear God, no, please, you’re a terrible wing woman, Lis.” 

“Shhhhh, I think the love potion already clouded your mind.” 

The next words of Chaeyoung’s get stifled because the Thai girl’s hand is suddenly covering her mouth – muting her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let's get this baby to 10'000 hits and i'll marry each and everyone of you!  
> (...who wants to - obviously. i'm not a monster.)
> 
> a little insight of chaelisa's friendship. a teeny-tiny one. 
> 
> hope you guys liked this one.  
> kai/lisa encounter next chapter - yay haha. 
> 
> xxx


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “It’s not too much?”, she asks again and the older Korean is quick to shake her head forcefully. 
> 
> “It fits the occasion.”, Jisoo grins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> probably full of typos - sorry!

**Chapter 25**

Jennie looks at herself in the mirror – spinning on the spot so she can check each and every angle of her new outfit, smoothening out a few wrinkles of the dress.  
She glances back with a frown on her face. 

“What do you think?”, she asks and places herself in front of her laptop and flaps her arms up and down. “I’m not really sure about the dress.”

There’s just a loud snort audible.  
“Are you kidding me, Jennie?”, Jisoo says almost angrily. “You look incredible. Lisa won’t know what hit her.” 

Jennie blushes and shakes her head – grimacing at her best friend through the screen. 

“It’s not too much?”, she asks again and the older Korean is quick to shake her head forcefully. 

“It fits the occasion.”, Jisoo grins and then she’s suddenly out of the picture – leaving behind a rather confused Jennie who’s now only staring at the surroundings of Jisoo’s bedroom. 

“Speaking of….”, Jennie hears Jisoo shout from somewhere else in her flat and then she suddenly appears again – holding a bottle of Champagne hands. 

“Thanks for giving me a reason to day-drink, bestie!”

She laughs as the younger girl rolls her eyes – the bottle being opened only a second after, the loud “plop” startling Jennie. She shrieks and Jisoo only grins at her. 

“God, you really have no manners.”, Jennie snarls when the other girl lifts the bottle into the air as if to toast and then brings it to her lips to drink right out of it. 

“I wanna get wasted – no time for glasses. They’re overrated anyway, if you ask me.”

“I’m glad I didn’t ask then.”, Jennie laughs, but then her face gets a little more serious because she realizes the hint behind her best friend’s words and the slight crooked smile on Jisoo’s face.  
Jennie moves closer to her laptop – placing it on her tights after she sits down on the bed. 

“What’s up, Chu? Why do you want to get drunk on a Wednesday afternoon?”, she asks – her tone soft and caring. 

“Wednesday morning, you mean.”, the Korean corrects and shrugs – taking another big gulp of Champagne as if to showcase that she’s actually drinking and not just talking about it.

“Whatever.”, Jennie mumbles before falling silent again – leaving Jisoo all the time she needs to formulate her answer. 

“It’s no big deal, really.”, the darker haired tries to escape the situation. “I just feel like it.” 

“Last time you drank on a workday was after I told you I’m moving to America. So… you can quit the bullshit, Chu.”

“Oi, language, Missy!”, Jisoo scolds and lifts her eyebrows. 

“Fuck you.”, Jennie retorts – earning another gasp from her best friend who fake-shocked places her palm on her chest. 

“Much better.”, Jisoo grins – her face falling again after that and Jennie’s concern increases. Sure, she’s got an idea what this was about, but she wanted to hear it from her best friend nonetheless. 

It takes Jisoo another good minute of drinking the bubbly alcohol before she’s able to say it. 

“Okay. So, remember how I told you about Chaeng and how we’re talking like… non-stop?” 

Jennie just nods. 

“Well… a few days ago she told me how she’s not really interested in something serious and…. it’s not like I was expecting anything else – you know me, I don’t do serious anyway. But… this time… I don’t know. This one just hit different. Even though I really hadn’t anything in mind. Really! But… I just… dunno… It kinda hurt, I guess.” 

She takes in a deep breath and pushes it out through her front teeth – something she only ever does when she’s actually upset and Jennie’s initial reaction would be to give her a big bearhug, but since that’s not something she can do right now, she sticks to reaching out and stroking Jisoo’s cheek on the screen.  
She also feels kinda guilty because it had been her who had asked Chaeyoung to tell Jisoo so.  
Jennie closes her eyes for a moment before biting her lips in attempt not to speak too soon and probably say something stupid. 

“I’m sorry you’re hurting. And yet I think it’s a good thing she told you because otherwise you might have gotten your hopes up. Now at least you’re both on the same track.”

“Yeah, I guess.”, Jisoo answers defeated and Jennie feels her throat closing up. She’s not used to sad Jisoo and she sure as hell doesn’t like it when her bubbly and full-of-positivity best friend is like this. 

“To be honest with you… It was me who told Chaeng to be honest with you about the way she feels… or doesn’t feel. I’m sorry if that’s the reason you’re sad now.” 

Jisoo’s face doesn’t move – she just keeps staring at Jennie through the screen. 

“It’s okay. It’s for the better – I know that. I just wish it wouldn’t bother me so much.” 

Jennie sights and nods slightly. “I know, Chichu, I know. Just… Try not to drown all your feelings in alcohol. Sometimes it’s best to just... feel them.” 

“Thanks Dr. Kim.”, the older Korean smirks and deliberately moves the bottle to her mouth again – but only nibbles at the opening of the bottle before putting it down again. 

“Enough about me.”, Jisoo defines and her eyes move downwards to where Jennie knows the time is displayed on her computer. “When do you meet up with Lisa?”

Jennie quickly glances at her own watch and then shoots up – her eyes going black for a second there. 

“Shit.”, she pushes out – hurriedly looking around the room, searching for her bag. “I’m sorry, Chu. I have to run. I’m already late.” 

Her sight lands on her best friends face once again as she halts her hasty movements. 

“Are you going to be okay? I’m not entirely comfortable leaving you like this.” 

Jisoo just snorts at that. “I’m fine, Jendeukie. Go and celebrate with your girl… Oh and Jennie?” 

“Yes?”

“Take pictures of Lisa’s reaction to your outfit for me. The face of her almost dying is bound to be ridiculous.” 

_____________

Jisoo’s not wrong – Jennie realizes once she comes face to face with her girlfriend at the bar of the restaurant, where the Korean had ordered her to come to. 

Lisa looks like someone just told her that she won the lottery and, in some ways, maybe she did. The blank expression on her face is everything and Jennie’s almost a little sad herself that she didn’t bring her camera to capture this.  
It takes about a full minute until Lisa’s open mouth is able to release some words and the way she stammers then makes Jennie laugh out loud. 

“I… you… wha… I mean… fuck.”

Lisa slips down from the bar stool where she had been waiting and gulps, before maneuvering her arms to grip Jennie’s waist. 

“See something you like?”, the shorter girl asks playfully and bites her lower lip when Lisa’s hungry eyes wander from her waist upwards. 

“Like doesn’t even begin to describe it, really.”, the Thai girl answers – her orbs now fixed on Jennie’s cat-like eyes. “I really hope you’re here alone, because I’m so taking you home tonight.”, she adds with a wink – earning herself a soft slap on her forearm. 

“Stop it.”, Jennie giggles. “I have a girlfriend, you know.”

“Ugh.”, Lisa groans as she moves her hands up and down Jennie’s sides. “That lucky bastard.”

She sends the older girl a smile and Jennie has to steady herself a little by holding onto the counter because it’s _that_ smile – Lisa’s bright and distinctive smile, which always almost makes her swoon. 

They stare at each other for another long moment – everything around them fading momentarily, before Lisa pulls Jennie slightly closer and examines her delicate facial features. 

“Soooo… are you gonna tell me the reason lured me here, looking like a snack and told me to dress up as well?” 

Jennie smiles happily – eyes sparkling with anticipation, but before even one syllable can leave her mouth, there’s a heavy hand on her shoulder and a loud voice in their ears. 

“Miss Kim!”  
Lisa recognizes him instantly by the lewdly tone of his voice and the way his eyes fall to Jennie’s chest first. It makes her gag inwardly. Nonetheless, Lisa’s hyperaware of the position she and her girlfriend are in and she’s quick to remove her hands from the Korean. 

“I thought that was you. Fancy meeting you here.” Kai’s voice is much too loud for a restaurant and even the bartender looks over at them with a slight frown on his forehead. Lisa sends him an apologetic look which he reciprocates. 

Jennie on the other hand seems too startled to realize or care – her chest tightening, leading to shorter and more rapid breaths. 

“Hey Kai.”, she murmurs and covers her cleavage with her hand, by pretending to fix her necklace. He’s definitely had some form of alcohol, because that’s when he loses all his bashfulness and mostly just stares. 

His eyes shoot up and meet the other Korean’s for the first time – before moving over to do the same to Lisa who’s still standing silently beside. 

“Ah, I see.”, he indicates – his words slightly slurred. “Girls night out celebrating the big promotion, huh?” He smiles, even though it doesn’t quite reach his eyes – completely missing how the taller girl’s eyes grow wide and her mouth falls open. 

Jennie sights audibly – scratching the back of her neck before shaking her head once. She looks over at Lisa with a defeated countenance. 

“Thanks a lot Kai.”, she mumbles frustrated and even though he doesn’t look like it – he picks up on the atmosphere and grimaces. 

“Oh, did your friend not know?”, he laughs somewhat gleeful and pats Lisa’s upper arm. “Sorry I spoiled the surprise, pal. But hey, happy news. Our girl here got promoted. Department manager. Ain’t that great?” 

Lisa nods and barely noticeable moves closer to where Jennie is standing dumbfounded – staring at Kai in complete disbelieve. 

“And you’re her new spokesperson? Or where do you get the permission to simply announce this information, _pal_?”

Kai blinks at the stern intonation of Lisa’s words and takes a small step back. He seems to process what’s happening for a second, before his face breaks into a grin once again. 

“No need to be feisty, honey. I’m just so happy about having a new, hot boss. It slipped.” 

The return is almost halfway up Lisa’s throat when Jennie perks in – her face as hard as it gets. 

“First of all, don’t ever call her honey again. I’m the only one who gets to do that. And secondly, don’t talk to me like that. I’m your boss now and believe me when I say that I won’t tolerate this kind of lewd sayings and inadequate behavior.” 

Kai looks caught off guard and bewildered – his little brain trying to wrap itself around the things just said and then he smirks again – pointing between Jennie and Lisa. 

“Ah, I see what’s happening here. You guys are a bunch of-.” “Don’t even dare to finish this sentence.”, Jennie interrupts and glares at him warningly. To be true, she’s a little bit surprised at how bold she feels right now, but nevertheless she’s embracing it – somewhat proud of how right this feels. 

“A bunch of beautiful and successful women, who don’t need a man to tell them how to live their lives. I think that’s what he wanted to say.”, Lisa fills the silence – her whole body turned towards Jennie now. 

“Yeah, I would think so too, babe.”, Jennie replies and Lisa almost jumps out of her skin in joy at the nickname she uses – knowing very well how big this is.  
There’s a ton of adrenalin rushing through the Thai girl’s body considering this breakthrough – as well as Jennie’s promotion – and it makes her feel brave enough to grab her girlfriend’s hand. Jennie lets her and Lisa almost screams out of relief. 

“If you’ll excuse us now.”, Jennie focuses back on the man still standing in front of them with a flabbergasted look on his pale face. “We have something to celebrate. See you tomorrow.”

She squeezes Lisa’s hand and pulls her towards the seating-area – where a waiter already waves at them expectantly.  
It’s only a few steps before Jennie turns around again and sends Kai one last pointed glare. 

“Oh and Kai? Don't forget to reconsider your attitudes towards women. I do not tolerate discriminatory people on my team.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yikes - that was.. fun?  
> um, yeah.  
> maybe yes, maybe no - let me know. <\- hey that rhymed, yay! 
> 
> (also, sorry kai. sure you're a marvelous guy in real life - but not here in this story. excusez-moi.) 
> 
> xxx


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Can I tell you something?”, Lisa asks after she lifts their joint hands to kiss the back of Jennie’s soft skin – lingering for a little bit to smell the other girl’s instinct scent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the wait... my studies. you know by now.
> 
> also: THANK YOU GUYS for over 10'000 hits on this little story here. y'all are crazy, i love you's. 
> 
> anyway here we gooo!

**Chapter 26**

The way they are holding hands – letting them swing slightly between each other, reminds her of almost every romantic movie she’s ever seen, and it makes Lisa’s insides squirm a bit.  
It’s not like they’ve never held hands before, of course. But feeling Jennie’s hand in her own right now – out and about and noticing the tight grip of her girlfriend just sent her straight into her own fairytale. And tonight, Jennie was the knight in shining armor who defeated the evil dragon. 

“Can I tell you something?”, Lisa asks after she lifts their joint hands to kiss the back of Jennie’s soft skin – lingering for a little bit to smell the other girl’s instinct scent. 

Jennie squeezes the Thai girl’s slender fingers with her own and looks up at her with sparkling eyes.  
“Of course you can, babe.” 

Lisa stops in her tracks – somewhat blocking Jennie’s way and pulling the shorter girl closer.  
She pauses for a second and just takes in the sight in front of her - content and smiling Jennie with a glow on her skin that screams self-confidence. Lisa loves it. 

“I’m so proud of you.”, she states – the tone of her voice leaving no doubt about her honesty whatsoever and it elicits a sly blush on Jennie’s puffy cheeks that she tries to hide behind her free hand. 

“It’s no big deal. They probably just want someone to keep an eye on Kai and the other’s so they decided that-.” “No.”, Lisa interrupts calmly. “That’s not what I meant – you worked your butt off, so this promotion is absolutely well-deserved.” 

Jennie frowns and moves closer to nudge Lisa’s nose with her own. It’s chaste but it sets fire to the taller girl’s chest nonetheless. 

“What did you mean then?”, Jennie asks – still completely oblivious to her girlfriend’s intimation. 

“I’m proud of your confidence back at the restaurant and the way you stood up for yourself.” 

“Oh.”, Jennie nods and eyes Lisa through her long, fluttering eyelashes. She’s a little speechless then, because honestly, Jennie’s only once in her life been congratulated on a coming-out and hence she doesn’t have much experience with that. When she had told Jisoo some years ago – the raven haired had only laughed and had pushed a bottle of Champagne into her hands. It was typical Jisoo and really, there probably was never the need for Jennie to come out to her anyway, so Jennie had been completely fine with it.  
Still, there was something else about Lisa’s reaction just now and if she was being honest – it somehow made her want to cry. 

“I’m…. thank you.”, Jennie mumbles – feeling the tears sting behind her eyelids and where she’s not usually the type of person who lets her emotions flow freely, she’s always been different with Lisa. Something about the Thai just made it possible for Jennie to be completely open and honest with everything she was and felt. So, she lets the tears flow from her eyes without holding back and as expected, Lisa pushes further into her – both of her hands on Jennie’s cheeks and wiping at the wetness. 

“Baby…”, Lisa whispers in the softest voice as her head tilts slightly – looking at the smaller girl sorrowful. “Don’t cry.” 

“I’m sorry…”, Jennie sobs. She doesn’t try to stop her crying though, because she feels that it’s necessary right now and she knows that Lisa will understand.  
And she does – without Jennie having to explain herself, Lisa’s arms find their way around her tiny figure and pull her close until there’s no space left between the two of them and she just lets the small girl cry into her neck.  
With every passing second, Jennie feels herself become calmer as she wordlessly connects with Lisa – the sheer presence and undivided attention from her healing wounds so old, Jennie never thought she’d ever have to deal with them again.  
But right now, she feels things fall back into place that had been misplaced for years – caused by disappointment, despair and betrayal – and all of a sudden it makes Jennie laugh. A laugh mixed with tears and about a million emotions.  
And still, Lisa gets it. She chuckles lightly and kisses the side of Jennie’s head while her hands stroke her girlfriends back soothingly. 

“I really needed to hear that.”, Jennie breaths into Lisa’s hair some moments later – slowly breaking away from their embrace so she’s able to lock her eyes with the other girl’s. 

Lisa nods and places a small kiss on Jennie’s forehead. She lingers for a second – both of their eyelids falling shut – just taking in the loving touch. 

“Not many people have told you that, huh?”, Lisa asks – but the question is rhetorical and they both know that.  
Still, Jennie shakes her head and the Thai girl falls silent again – her eyes scanning her girlfriend’s features closely. 

“I’m sorry you didn’t have that, Jen. You should have. You should hear that every day. It takes a lot of courage to be unapologetically yourself and it’s never something to take for granted. There are so many people suppressing their true self because there’s no one telling them that it’s okay and that they should be proud of who they are. So… I know that that was a huge step for you and I want you to know that I’m so very proud of who you are. I’m proud of you every second of every day. Please always remember that.” 

Lisa’s taken aback when a tiny fist hits her shoulder and she fake gasps – meeting Jennie’s eyes who are watery yet again. 

“Ouch!”, Lisa hisses, when Jennie hits her again – pointing at the tear streaks running down her puffy cheeks. 

“Look what you did. Now I’m crying again because of you.” 

Jennie shakes her head when Lisa starts to giggle – her arms finding their way around the Korean’s waist and holding her close.  
Jennie’s hands come up to grab Lisa’s neck – her head so close she almost has to squint to be able to look into the other girl’s brown orbs. 

“I have no idea how you do it, but you somehow bring out the truest version of me. The one I always wanted to be, but never was quite able to until you came into my life.”, Jennie admits and she can see how the air runs out of Lisa’s lungs at her statement.  
It makes her smile, because it shows how her words got to her girlfriend – their importance recognized. 

“You complete me too.”, Lisa mumbles as she leans down to seal the deal – planting two little words on Jennie’s lips. “My soulmate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOULMATES!?
> 
> are they real? yes or no? 
> 
> what do you guys think? let me know. let's discuss ;)


End file.
